Reforms In The Tourism Industry Of Australia

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Discuss about the Reforms in the Tourism Industry of Australia.

The tourism industry of Australia has been a significant contributor to the economic development of the continent. The year 2014 witnessed a contribution of 3% to the Australian GDP by the said industry. In twenty years times the international tourism of Australia has doubled itself. The rising income of tourists, falling air fare prices and the relative price of tourism in Australia are lesser than the other countries. However the share of the visitors has decreased from 0.7 percent to 0.6 percent presently. To improvise the share, the government has introduced reforms and a certain level of investment as well in the continent’s international tourism industry. 

The Australian government have introduced various reforms time and again so as to boost the said industry and increase its contribution to the GDP of the country as a whole. Government has a whole array of reforms which are being implemented gradually. Firstly they aimed at encouraging the regional tourism and then attract the international tourists to visit the regional areas of the country. The regulators are concentrating on funding the marketing of the attractions of Australia to the world along with supporting some of the famous sports, social and business events as well. The Government has been a major contributor monetarily for the development of tourism in Australia. The total expenditure of the Australian Tourism Agency in 2014 was about $700 million of which 90% was paid by the Government. However it does not include events such as Commonwealth Games and Formula 1 Grand Prix which are managed by a separate body itself (Productivity Commission Research Paper, 2015). 

The tourists mainly visit Australia for the purpose of leisure, business meetings, meeting up with their family and friends or for educational purposes. Mostly the visitors belong to China, UK, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, and the USA. The table below shows the international tourism survey vis a vis the indigenous tourism survey.

Tourism industry has bought a major reform in providing employment to a million individuals and the said number accounts for eight percent of the country’s total employment figures. But unfortunately there are a handful of vacancies which are yet to be filled.  However under the Tourism 2020 plan the Government has highlighted four major action plan to cater to the said challenge. They are focussed upon retention of the people in the said industry, enhancement of regional workforce and development, providing adequate training and education to people so as to fill up the said gap and enhancement of workforce mobility and encouraging the traditional workforce as well (austrade.gov.au, 2016). 

Conclusion

Further cooperation between governments at the state and regional level will be more beneficial in attracting the international tourists. Such as instead of fighting for securing the major events, if the state and regional governments join hands then it would prevent overbidding for events thus dispersing the profit accumulating to the Australian community as a whole. 

Promoting tourism in any country would mean that the air travel facilities should be good. Australia has negotiated air service arrangements with 94 countries and for more than ten years now the Australian Government has had a policy of practicing international aviation liberalisation which is in the interest of the nation (Kiser, 2003). Their main motto has been that the supply is more than the demand. The open skies arrangements and the open capacity arrangements are some of the air service arrangements made by the Australian government so as to ensure accessibility to various parts of Australia. 

The government has also introduced a reformation for the visa application process. It is understood that the continent’s visa application process is too cumbersome and demanding as compared to the other comparable countries’ visa application process. With the advent of China as a major gateway for international visitors to Australia it is becoming a necessity to improve the visa processing procedure for China. Other competitors such as the USA, UK and India have also taken steps to simplify the same for the tourists from China (DIBP, 2014). The Department of Immigration and Border Protection aims at converting the visa application process online by 2015. To promote Chinese visitors, the Australian Government had introduced three year multiple-entry visas for the business visitors from China. As the tourism industry is focussing upon the said industry, the hotel owners should try to get away with the concept of one-size-fits-all approach (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2016). 

Infrastructure is another important component of the tourism industry for any country and so for Australia as well. Visitors not only come to Australia to view the Great Barrier Reef and the National parks but also are equally interested in the roads, the food that the restaurants offer, convention centres and museums as well. Government’s reform policy also has a space for the maintenance of the same. They fund the infrastructure of the parks and such other attractions by ensuring that the walking path is well maintained, proper sign boards are put and information centres are updated. 

Another very important part fo the Australian tourism industry is that not only China but other parts of Asia are also a major contributor to the industry. The visitors visiting Australia for a short duration of time has doubled from 2.5 million in the year 1991-92 to 6.7 million in 203-14. The maximum growth in the said industry is expected to be from the Asian countries. The figure below shows the curve of the number of international visitors to Australia region wise for the period 1991-92 to 2013-14. 

Source: Productivity Commission Research Paper, (2015)

These are some of the reforms that the government has introduced amongst the list it has for the promotion of the tourism industry in Australia. In the year 2010, the Government of Australia launched the Tourism 2020 Industry Potential. Its focus is over six main areas which are as under:

1. To capture the growing international visitation from Asia the Government needs to form reforms to understand the consumer tastes, strategise their marketing campaigns and improvise upon their policies with regards tourism.
2. A very small portion of the Australian operators are using digital technology for booking tickets and hotels and accepting payments. This restricts their ability to cater to both domestic as well as international visitors. Thus Government is trying to work upon the same so that higher number of tourism enterprises takes the opportunity of doing business digitally.
3. The investment in the said industry in Australia is not at its peak From 2000-01 to 2009-10, the total investment in the said industry grew at half the speed that the rest of the Australian economy. The regulatory norms are dispersed unequally so much that the investors are not interested in investing in the infrastructure of Australia. Government is trying to introduce reforms so as to decrease the barriers and ensure development of the infrastructure as demanded by the visitors.
4. Tourism in any country will increase if the local movements and transport facilities are well developed so that people can move to, from and within Australia. Government is entering into ventures with various business houses so as to increase the transport facility in line with the demand.
5. There is a shortage of labour in the said industry of Australia and the number is more than half a lac. Government should formulate reforms to ensure adequate recruitments of skilled and unskilled labour.
6. Lastly, the Government should work with the tourism industry so as to increase the output, the quality and innovation(tourism.australia.com, 2011). 

Conclusion 

Thus on a summarising note it can be said that the Government has introduced various reforms such as in the process of visa application, air services and infrastructure, it still has a long way to go and the said Tourism 2020 Industry Potential is sure to create a mark in the development of the said industry so much that it will in future be one of the major contributor to the Australian Economy. Further China will continue to dominate the Australian tourism industry in the coming years as well.

References:

austrade.gov.au., (2016), Labour and Skills, Available at https://www.austrade.gov.au/Australian/Tourism/Policy-and-Strategy/labour-and-skills (Accessed 28th November 2016) 

DIBP (Department of Immigration and Border Protection) 2014, Visitor Visa Processing Times, Available at https://www.immi.gov.au/about/charters/client-services-charter/visas/1.0.htm (accessed 28th November 2016). 

Kiser, J. (2003), The multilateral agreement on the liberalization of international air transportation’, presented at Worldwide Air Transport Conference, 5th meeting, March, https://www.icao.int/Meetings/ATConf5/Documents/Kiser.pdf (accessed 28th November 2016). 

Productivity Commission Research Paper, (2015), Australia’s International Tourism Industry, Available at https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/international-tourism/international-tourism.pdf (Accessed 28th November 2016) 

tourism.australia.com, (2011), Tourism 2020, Available at https://www.tourism.australia.com/documents/Tourism_2020_overview.pdf (Accessed 28th November 2016) 

The Sydney Morning Herald, (2016), Australia to score as China tourists spend more, Available at https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/australia-to-score-as-china-tourists-spend-more-20160718-gq8can.html (Accessed 28th November 2016)