AUSTRALIANS travelling at home are a "dying breed", says the convenor of a tourism futures conference taking place in Melbourne.
Australia's domestic tourism clientele is literally dying out, according to Tony Charters, who believes the industry needs to urgently recalibrate to cater for different types of holidays.
Australia's domestic tourism clientele is literally dying out, according to Tony Charters, who believes the industry needs to urgently recalibrate to cater for different types of holidays.
"I think the Australian tourism industry is still largely operating on the model that worked in the '80s and '90s," says Charters, the principal of tourism consultancy, Tony Charters and Associates.
"The nature of the industry is changing quite dramatically but we're still trying to use an old model [resorts and tourism geared towards long summer holidays and extended beach breaks] to deal with it. Australia needs to reboot itself; to reset the standards."
Analysis undertaken by Roy Morgan Research, to be presented to the Tourism and Events Excellence conference, demonstrates strong demand for overseas travel, with almost half of those planning to holiday in the next 12 months preferring to go overseas.
The director of tourism, travel and leisure for Roy Morgan Research, Jane Ianniello, says a key driver for this is travellers "seeking an exotic holiday destination with a different culture from ours".
Of particular concern to Charters are younger travellers "looking to overseas travel almost as a default", indicating the domestic market will continue to erode.
The Morgan research also suggests Melbourne and Victoria generally are the only Australian destinations performing well and the only ones well placed to cater for future tourism.
Charters believes our taste for international travel is something only diabolical world events could change and Australia should give up trying to compete at the mass-market level.
It should instead reposition itself to focus on luxury niche products, short breaks and city-based tourism.
Australia will never be able to compete on price and can only succeed with more targeted and more sophisticated products, he says.
Charters likens it to becoming the "Swiss watch" of the industry, positioned as a high-quality, desirable item among a sea of cheap digital timepieces.
He stresses that targeted, niche tourism "does not necessarily mean six-star"; in fact, he sees the backpacker and grey nomad markets as very important.
It means providing high-value experiences, including eco-tourism, indigenous tourism and unique accommodation. "This conference is trying to really take stock and look at what is working and what's not working," he says.
In his view, the tourism products struggling the most are the large-scale resorts in "remote" destinations such as far north Queensland, the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia. Not only are they harder and more expensive to reach; they are also, in many cases, old and tired.
The general rule of thumb for hotels and resorts is that they should undergo "soft" refurbishment every five years and a major overhaul every 10 years, yet there are Australian properties that have not been updated for 20 years or more. Charters says many of them have never turned a decent profit and the money is simply not there to reinvest.
"It's not like [they] made a killing in the past, they never made a profit to start with," he says.
The tired state of Australia's tourism infrastructure was acknowledged recently by the Minister Assisting on Tourism, Senator Nick Sherry. Sherry told a tourism summit that there had not been enough investment to maintain and expand Australia's tourism stock, resulting in some of it looking "old and worn".
The chief executive of the Tourism and Transport Forum, John Lee, could not agree more, saying tourism needs to be on the table at the federal government's tax summit next month.
The TTF wants to see accelerated tax depreciation for hotels and resorts, along with changes to the way payroll tax is applied to this labour-intensive industry to allow for more investment in modernisation.
Lee says those two initiatives, which have been detailed in a submission to the government, would "change the whole economic structure for hotels". He stresses that the industry is not looking for handouts but an environment more conducive to investing in itself.
Lee says the proposal put forward by the TTF is not one that "Treasury boffins" would readily support and it would take strong political leadership to get it across the line.
"If you wish to eliminate the apricot colours of so many resorts in Queensland, you need to say yes to this," he says.
Complementary measures and transitional assistance would be needed to help offset increased costs and reduced revenues for tourism businesses. A recent TTF-MasterCard survey found 78 per cent of tourism operators believe a carbon tax would have a medium-to-high impact on their business.
jane@janeefraser.com.au
"The nature of the industry is changing quite dramatically but we're still trying to use an old model [resorts and tourism geared towards long summer holidays and extended beach breaks] to deal with it. Australia needs to reboot itself; to reset the standards."
Analysis undertaken by Roy Morgan Research, to be presented to the Tourism and Events Excellence conference, demonstrates strong demand for overseas travel, with almost half of those planning to holiday in the next 12 months preferring to go overseas.
The director of tourism, travel and leisure for Roy Morgan Research, Jane Ianniello, says a key driver for this is travellers "seeking an exotic holiday destination with a different culture from ours".
Of particular concern to Charters are younger travellers "looking to overseas travel almost as a default", indicating the domestic market will continue to erode.
The Morgan research also suggests Melbourne and Victoria generally are the only Australian destinations performing well and the only ones well placed to cater for future tourism.
Charters believes our taste for international travel is something only diabolical world events could change and Australia should give up trying to compete at the mass-market level.
It should instead reposition itself to focus on luxury niche products, short breaks and city-based tourism.
Australia will never be able to compete on price and can only succeed with more targeted and more sophisticated products, he says.
Charters likens it to becoming the "Swiss watch" of the industry, positioned as a high-quality, desirable item among a sea of cheap digital timepieces.
He stresses that targeted, niche tourism "does not necessarily mean six-star"; in fact, he sees the backpacker and grey nomad markets as very important.
It means providing high-value experiences, including eco-tourism, indigenous tourism and unique accommodation. "This conference is trying to really take stock and look at what is working and what's not working," he says.
In his view, the tourism products struggling the most are the large-scale resorts in "remote" destinations such as far north Queensland, the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia. Not only are they harder and more expensive to reach; they are also, in many cases, old and tired.
The general rule of thumb for hotels and resorts is that they should undergo "soft" refurbishment every five years and a major overhaul every 10 years, yet there are Australian properties that have not been updated for 20 years or more. Charters says many of them have never turned a decent profit and the money is simply not there to reinvest.
"It's not like [they] made a killing in the past, they never made a profit to start with," he says.
The tired state of Australia's tourism infrastructure was acknowledged recently by the Minister Assisting on Tourism, Senator Nick Sherry. Sherry told a tourism summit that there had not been enough investment to maintain and expand Australia's tourism stock, resulting in some of it looking "old and worn".
The chief executive of the Tourism and Transport Forum, John Lee, could not agree more, saying tourism needs to be on the table at the federal government's tax summit next month.
The TTF wants to see accelerated tax depreciation for hotels and resorts, along with changes to the way payroll tax is applied to this labour-intensive industry to allow for more investment in modernisation.
Lee says those two initiatives, which have been detailed in a submission to the government, would "change the whole economic structure for hotels". He stresses that the industry is not looking for handouts but an environment more conducive to investing in itself.
Lee says the proposal put forward by the TTF is not one that "Treasury boffins" would readily support and it would take strong political leadership to get it across the line.
"If you wish to eliminate the apricot colours of so many resorts in Queensland, you need to say yes to this," he says.
Taxing times
Even more travellers could be heading overseas if the carbon tax goes ahead, says the Tourism and Transport Forum. The TTF says the tax would make domestic travel relatively more expensive than international travel, which would not be subject to the tax.Complementary measures and transitional assistance would be needed to help offset increased costs and reduced revenues for tourism businesses. A recent TTF-MasterCard survey found 78 per cent of tourism operators believe a carbon tax would have a medium-to-high impact on their business.
jane@janeefraser.com.au
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