QUEENSLAND TOURISM INDUSTRY COUNCIL
As the peak industry body for tourism in Queensland, the Queensland Tourism Industry Council (QTIC) represents the interests of the industry through partnerships with operators, government agencies, industry bodies and tourism stakeholders at a local, state and national level. This includes our formal partnership - DestinationQ - with the Queensland Government.
Our membership comprises more than 3,000 regional members (individual and corporate) alongside 13 Regional Tourism Organisations (RTOs) and 18 industry sector associations.
Industry has trusted us for more than a decade to advocate for a business environment that delivers on current and future tourism needs. Similarly, decision makers have sought our industry knowledge and networks to influence policy and budget decisions to create a competitive business environment.
INTRODUCTION
The Queensland Tourism Industry Council (QTIC) welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback to the Australian Government on the Green Paper on Developing Northern Australia (the Paper).
QTIC’s Chief Executive, Daniel Gschwind, attended the two 2014 Northern Development Summits held in Darwin and Townsville which brought together industry, Indigenous, conservation, natural resource management bodies, research and other sectors. QTIC was also invited to make a submission at the public hearing of the Joint Committee inquiry into the development of northern Australia on 20 May 2014. Our involvement in the Summits and our vested interest in the economic future of northern Australia will be the foundation of the recommendations put forth in this submission.
We commend the government on the initiative, the work undertaken to date and the rightful recognition of tourism as one of the economic powerhouses for northern Australia in the years to come. In Deloitte’s October 2013 report “Positioning for prosperity? Catching the next wave”, it stated that Australia must position itself for prosperity by extending the current run of the mining “wave” and look at what other future waves that we can catch. The report identified that the seeds of growth for Australia’s next two decades can be found in our unique advantages in tourism, agribusiness, gas, international education and wealth management. Collectively, these five waves could be as big as mining and have the potential to add a quarter of a trillion dollars to the national income over the next two decades.
Tourism is projected to be among the world’s fastest growing industries and already contributes $100.1 billion to the Australian economy through the total expenditure of international and domestic visitors for the year ending March 2014[1]. Maximising the potential of the industry will see the industry growing at least 10% faster than Global Gross Domestic Product (more than 3.7%).
In order for northern Australia to play a major role in the achieving tourism’s full potential, QTIC has identified our key priorities below. These priorities align to the six broad policy directions as identified in the Paper and require all levels of government to work together to achieve:
· Establishing infrastructure and access to the region that allows for greater connectivity, improved tourism experiences, more regional tourism events and better access to tourism products.
· Provide new experiences that focus on Indigenous culture, and those that highlight the region’s ‘hero experiences’[2] as well as deliver more choices for the visitor.
· Foster the knowledge economy to achieve global competitiveness.
· Improve the natural resource management to allow sustainable developments that highlight the region’s strengths.
· Build sustainable communities through tourism to create cohesion for those in Indigenous communities, regional or rural towns and cities and deliver strong local economies.
· Developing a shared workforce and the workforce capacity to meet the needs of the tourism industry towards 2020.
Furthermore, we support the Kimberley to Cape submission, particularly the recommendation that the White Paper adopt the following principles in this regard:
· A resilient, diverse and sustainable economy for Northern Australia is necessary to underpin the wellbeing of its communities, the long-term management of its resources and its contribution to society;
· Northern Australia’s unique, intact and globally-significant natural and cultural values must be recognised, utilised and safeguarded as central to its future;
· Indigenous interests must be recognised, and northern development and socio-economic development need to be pursued together, since neither is sustainable, nor equitable, without the other; and
· Development must involve genuine collaboration with local communities and be compatible with local cultures and conditions.
Tourism in Queensland draws many parallels to the opportunities and challenges for the economy of northern Australia. In particularly, and as per The Queensland Plan[3], “regions are the engine rooms of our state” and we must build on what already makes our regions exceptional: people, local enterprise, and natural resources. These elements will develop our strategic and competitive advantage.
TOURISM PRORITIES
Infrastructure and access
The Queensland Plan rightly identifies that infrastructure – one of the nine foundations of the Plan – “creates building blocks for the future”. With absolute relevance to the northern Australia region, the Plan states that:
“We need the right infrastructure in place to capitalise on the opportunities arising from the economic growth of our Asia-Pacific neighbours, including those created by the digital economy. Queenslanders want to be able to export our resources, welcome new tourists at our international airports and undertake business transactions online.
Upgrading and expanding Queensland’s infrastructure will require significant investment.”
The relationship between tourism and infrastructure has dual benefits – tourism developments can modernize or even provide infrastructure that paves the way for stronger economic growth, while the right infrastructure may be the catalyst for tourism developments particularly in the case of drive tourism[4].
The Queensland Drive Tourism Strategy 2013-2015 demonstrates the latter and highlights the following key areas as a way for infrastructure to facilitate drive tourism in Queensland:
· Road quality, safety and maintenance
· Signage
· Roadside infrastructure
· Accommodation and facilities
· Visitor information and technology applications
The drive tourism market is very important for Queensland’s tourism industry, accounting for approximately 70% of the overnight leisure market in Queensland. In addition, day trippers are a significant part of the overall drive market and represent a significant portion of visitors in some parts of the state. The Queensland day trip market, the vast majority of which was by car, was worth $4.4 billion to the state’s economy in 2012. It is important to continue the support for the domestic market, and not just the international market, particularly for regional areas in central Queensland who achieve significantly greater visitor expenditure and visitation from domestic travelers than from abroad.
In the case of “the rise of Asia”, infrastructure projects such as airports, ports and the like, are critical in capturing new markets from the Asia region and deliver experiences that match changing consumer needs. However, there will also be tougher competition as the tourism infrastructure in other world locations – particularly from developing countries - improves.
China is expected to make the largest increase in capital investment in tourism between 2012 and 2033. Other countries substantially growing their investment include Thailand, Singapore, Mexico and Indonesia. Australia’s forecast investment growth is low and roughly equal to that of other developed economies. Undoubtedly, investments in tourism infrastructure are translating to visitor numbers. China has continued to grow in popularity since 2003 and in 2011 attracted the third highest number of international tourism arrivals worldwide.
Nevertheless, it is reinforced that “infrastructure need not focus exclusively on large scale or ‘mega’ projects. Smaller scale projects, upgrades, maintenance, or better use of existing infrastructure can all deliver productivity benefits, often outweighing those of larger and more costly projects” (The Queensland Plan, pg. 46).
Providing or facilitating the development of tourism infrastructure is one thing, whereas access is another. Improved access into places of high environmental value, for the betterment of the land and the enjoyment of the community and visitors, will enable our natural assets to become increasingly valuable tourist attractions in the future.
Queensland, as is the case for other states in northern Australia, is endowed with world class natural assets that will continue to attract tourists in greater numbers. The trends collated in a 2013 report by the CSIRO titled “The future of tourism in Queensland” show natural beauty and pristine wilderness will hold greater value of tourists of the future. Ease of access, effective management and promotion of natural assets will help Queensland to fetch a price premium in global tourist markets.
The desirability of ‘world class management of our natural environment’ and the importance of the protection of our natural assets; is again through articulated in The Queensland Plan.
New experiences
Although the level of material consumption continues to grow, there are emerging signs of a relative decoupling of economic growth with material consumption (OECD, 2011). Tangible goods are still purchased during a holiday but tourism is largely about the experience. As incomes continue to grow, tourism will play an important role in satisfying people’s cravings for memorable experiences.
There is also an increasing desire for authentic experiences and tourists are placing an increasing value on the nature and quality of the experience. More tourists are taking cultural experiences home with them rather than traditional souvenirs.
Australia and Queensland’s cultural tourism is largely underdeveloped, despite Australia having a unique cultural heritage and a population of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who are part of the modern Australian social fabric with ancient roots in this continent. But unlike with our natural assets and heritage, we have not been as successful in making those First Nation peoples part of our story and part of our tourism success. This despite the fact that we often see Indigenous Australians featured in promotional materials, along with images of rock paintings and sounds of didgeridoos.
QTIC and the wider tourism industry want to see change and have Indigenous Australia included in our story but not in a tokenistic use of Indigenous culture and people. Instead, industry must forge partnerships with Indigenous Australians in main stream tourism businesses, as business owners, employees, mentors, leaders. Partnerships can also offer appropriate access for visitors to the unique, ancient culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples, their stories, their connection to country, their knowledge. Few industries have the same potential to build commercial success in harmony with social and environmental aspirations.
Whether it be cultural tourism or any other tourism offering, Queensland and northern Australia must put emphasis on improving and providing tourism products that satisfy the ever-changing needs of the traveller. This has been further highlighted in Queensland’s 2014 annual DestinationQ[5] forum themes that centre on growing individual businesses and products. The forum, to be held mid-September 2014, will examine what business operators can do to overcome obstacles faced when driving change in their businesses and what role government can play in assisting.
Tourism operators in Cairns, for example, have identified the following matters that would assist in developing their products:
· Encouraging collaboration, links and greater accessibility of people with ideas and information.
· Seed funding as a necessary part of supporting new ideas.
· Supporting the ‘grass-roots’ organisations that work with operators to engage regionally.
· Driving quality in the industry and getting operators to engage in the direction of the industry.
· Sustainable long term funding
· Reducing the burden and encouraging growth:
o Tax incentives for innovative ideas.
o Direct a share of payroll tax, Land tax and Stamp duty to tourism marketing.
o Allowing operators to get the Export Market Development Grant ongoing to access new markets.
o Assess the feasibility of an insurance underwriting fund.
· Create pathways for young people to enter the labour market.
· Government and industry to show leadership in seeking ideas and inspiration internationally to drive our competitive advantage.
· Support the industry bid for Workforce Reform.
· Review of the National Parks permit system.
Knowledge economy
Knowledge transfer, cultural variables and social embeddedness are key determinants of global competitiveness for advanced regions and nations and foster a transformation of capitalism towards a ‘knowledge economy’[6]. Tourism destinations have an imperative to innovate and remain competitive in an increasingly global competitive environment. A pre-requisite for innovation is the understanding of how destinations source, share and use knowledge.
The knowledge-based economy has two important new features that demand a rethinking of our approach to both tourism destinations and tourism policy[7]. These features include:
· Structural economic change, as the new tourism products and innovations brought about by technology development; technology breaks down barriers to knowledge sharing.
· The employment of highly skilled labour as a means of competitive advantage and long-run economic growth. The knowledge-based economy will compete for staff and customers on different criteria.
Tourism organisations and government also have a role in the knowledge economy through providing industry insight and the tools for operators to be able to participate in the knowledge economy. These can include initiatives such as:
· Informing industry and government decision making through the gathering, analysis and dissemination of contemporary knowledge and research;
· Stimulating global conversation through online relationship development strategies, assets, content creation and initiatives; and
· Enabling and stimulating the ‘real time’ gathering and sharing of experience content through investment in technology infrastructure and platforms and content creation practices.
Furthermore, QTIC supports the “further development of education, science and research services in the north [that] will support innovation and development, grow and skill the local workforce, and diversify the northern economy. There are also opportunities to meet the needs of emerging tropical economies around the world as the north is one of the few established economies with this expertise” (The Queensland Plan, page 60).
Natural resource management
The Green Paper makes a very strong statement about the natural resources and landscapes of the region: