Tourism Australia’s Bar Needs to be Raised

The Chairman of Tourism Australia, Rick Allert, in his letter to the editor in the Gold Coast Bulletin on 16 June 2009 titled “Australia Still has enduring tourist appeal”, has invited evidence to show that his group’s performance has been below par in recent years.

Mr. Allert rests his case on the success of Tourism Australia’s promotion campaigns on the fact that in four of the last five years ‘record’ numbers of visitors have arrived in Australia. The fact is there should be a record set every year, if for no other reason that the world’s population is continually increasing at about 1.2% per annum. To maintain market share, Australia must increase its visitor numbers by at least 1.2% per annum.

Over the past three years (to December 2008), the Australian Bureau of Statistics recorded that annual growth in visitor arrivals to Australia have been 1%, 2% and -1%, which is less than the world’s population growth over the same period. World tourism grew by 2% in 2008 despite the global recession (UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, January 2009).

So, if Tourism Australia measures its performance on setting new records every year, it hasn’t done so in aggregate over the past three years. It has failed its own test.

Perhaps Tourism Australia needs a new performance indicator, like 3% growth in visitor numbers each year. This would be real growth.