barneybuck
July 22nd, 2004, 12:07 AM
Thoughts?
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/21/1090089218706.html?from=storylhs
How the goss is dimming the gloss
July 22, 2004
Room to move ... with Australia's international tourism numbers down, these visitors in Sydney yesterday could be forgiven for thinking they had landed on their own lonely planet. Photo: Peter Morris
Love the country, not sure about those policies ... the Australian tourism industry is increasingly sensitive to the actions of the Government, writes Brigid Delaney.
For a country so hungry for praise, it stings if tourists stop visiting because of the perception that Australia is racist. Trekking in Nepal, "up endless hills" the Lonely Planet travel publishing company's co-founder, Tony Wheeler, was walking behind a group of young British tourists. "A woman in the group was saying what a racist country Australia was and they all agreed," he says.
Tim Clelland, an Australian lawyer living in London, says he has had to counter the perception that "we don't treat Aboriginals very well and we lock up refugees in the desert".
On Monday the debate entered a wider arena when a court in London, which is considering whether the British Government must consider asylum applications from people who present themselves at consulates, heard evidence into conditions at Woomera detention centre.
The court was told: "The disturbing state of Australian detention centres was so well documented that when British officials sent two boys seeking asylum away from the consulate in Melbourne they were knowingly casting them into a place of mental and physical abuse."
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And in a recent article in The Spectator magazine, the English journalist Matthew Parris observed strained race relations in Australia. "Near Wollongong an Aboriginal man boarded our train. The carriage was full of white Australians who looked up as he fumbled at the door," he wrote.
"'Look,' whispered a schoolgirl behind me to her friends, 'he doesn't know how to open the door!' He didn't, but finally succeeded, lurched in and sat down. He was drunk. He smelt. A sort of horror ran around the carriage. It was as if they had all seen Banquo's ghost."
What others think of us - and our Government's policies - directly affect visitor numbers, says Wheeler. And the worse our image is overseas the less visitors are inclined to come here.
Tourists, particularly from Britain and Europe, could potentially be turned off coming to Australia because of our immigration policies, he says.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics released figures last week showing a decline in overseas visitors in May, and Wheeler considers Australia's immigration policy was a factor.
"We've created a lot of bad publicity for ourselves worldwide," Wheeler says. "We've gone out there turning ships around; you see that book by the captain of the Tampa in every bookshop in Scandinavia. It's as big a negative effect as you can possibly ask for."
Although Australia's peak tourist body, Tourism Australia, disagrees, arguing there is a lack of statistics supporting Wheeler's assertion, the issue was raised by the Federal Government last year when an internal report said tourists were visiting New Zealand rather than Australia. This was, the report said, partly due to our poor international image, stemming from immigration and refugee policies and the Tampa crisis. It said Australia's image was perceived to be racist.
David Fickling wrote in The Guardian last year: "Australia, once the lucky country, is now better recognised as the unfriendly island, always offering the cold shoulder to outsiders ... It's a picture which has become so widespread overseas that - according to one internal government report - tourists have already started spurning Australia for the seemingly more benevolent destination of New Zealand."
Christopher Brown, the CEO of Tourism & Transport Forum, is aware of the negative perceptions. For a country that was once global tourism's golden child, there are jitters in the industry whenever Australia's reputation is attacked abroad, he says.
"We certainly brought to the Federal Government's attention during One Nation [the emergence of the political party] that social policies do have an impact commercially. We need to be mindful of social matters."
Negative social policies can hurt Australia's "brand", Brown argues - and that can hurt business. "There are problems with the brand being tarnished. Australia was on the front page of [France's] Le Monde with a condemnation of the Tampa crisis. There have been protests in Japan over logging of our old growth forests in Tasmania. We've seen the world is aware of us," he says.
He says the forum has written to the Prime Minister, John Howard, with concerns about logging in Tasmania. "We need to go beyond the brochure," he says. "We've written to him saying these things resonate around the world. Particularly in the German and North American markets, where they care about the environment they holiday in."
This type of tourist is becoming desirable in Australia, says Brown. "[Joe] Hockey is trying to take the market away from cheap, packaged holidays. It's a risk - but an acceptable risk. When you chase the lucrative platinum market with more independent, well-heeled customers, these customers think more of the issues of destinations. They will be thinking about values."
But Brown is unconvinced that negative perceptions about Australia have financially impacted on the tourist industry - even among the more politically savvy backpacker crowd.
Guest arrivals in hostels have recorded an increase of 21.9 per cent since 2000, according to the latest (June) Survey of Tourism Accommodation. And since 2000 the number of working holiday visas granted has increased by 19.2 per cent.
Tourism Australia is also optimistic, saying that if the bureau's statistics on visitor numbers are seasonally adjusted, things do not look as grim. Its figures show that 2.1 million people have visited Australia so far this year, up 14 per cent from the same time last year.
Ken Boundy, the managing director of Tourism Australia, says: "People have not turned off coming to Australia. We have more than our fair share in global growth due to consistent marketing of this country and a pent-up global demand for tourism."
So what are we worried about?
Wheeler is still not convinced that Australian tourism has recovered since the SARS crisis and the intensified threat of global of terrorism.
Sales of Lonely Planet's Australia book, once the company's best seller, have slipped, a sign that the country has become a bit on the nose as a destination, Wheeler says.
But unlike terrorist violence and the spread of disease, he says Australia's perception abroad is something we may be able to control: "There are other factors, such as the Australian dollar appreciating and regional concerns, such an Indonesia, which affect visitor numbers, but immigration policies can't be overlooked. There is an election coming up."
A hot seller now at Lonely Planet is the New Zealand guide.
Says Wheeler: "New Zealand is having a real run at the moment. It's because of a whole bunch of factors including Lord of the Rings, but they've not joined in the madness of Iraq. When we were shipping people off to Nauru, New Zealand was saying, 'We'll have them'."
Brown admits New Zealand is catching up to Australia as a tourist destination. "For 20 years they have been chasing us and now they've done it," he says.
In 2001 a study showed visitors to New Zealand had increased by 6.7 per cent while those to Australia fell by 1.5 per cent. In the first eight months of 2002, arrivals in New Zealand rose by 4.1 per cent; Australia recorded a drop of 5 per cent.
If that's Government policy or just the passing of the tourist torch to the next golden child, we don't know.
But Brown warns: "It's in the long-term commercial and long-term moral interests for tourism to do the best thing socially and for the environment. The world is watching."
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/21/1090089218706.html?from=storylhs
How the goss is dimming the gloss
July 22, 2004
Room to move ... with Australia's international tourism numbers down, these visitors in Sydney yesterday could be forgiven for thinking they had landed on their own lonely planet. Photo: Peter Morris
Love the country, not sure about those policies ... the Australian tourism industry is increasingly sensitive to the actions of the Government, writes Brigid Delaney.
For a country so hungry for praise, it stings if tourists stop visiting because of the perception that Australia is racist. Trekking in Nepal, "up endless hills" the Lonely Planet travel publishing company's co-founder, Tony Wheeler, was walking behind a group of young British tourists. "A woman in the group was saying what a racist country Australia was and they all agreed," he says.
Tim Clelland, an Australian lawyer living in London, says he has had to counter the perception that "we don't treat Aboriginals very well and we lock up refugees in the desert".
On Monday the debate entered a wider arena when a court in London, which is considering whether the British Government must consider asylum applications from people who present themselves at consulates, heard evidence into conditions at Woomera detention centre.
The court was told: "The disturbing state of Australian detention centres was so well documented that when British officials sent two boys seeking asylum away from the consulate in Melbourne they were knowingly casting them into a place of mental and physical abuse."
Advertisement
Advertisement
And in a recent article in The Spectator magazine, the English journalist Matthew Parris observed strained race relations in Australia. "Near Wollongong an Aboriginal man boarded our train. The carriage was full of white Australians who looked up as he fumbled at the door," he wrote.
"'Look,' whispered a schoolgirl behind me to her friends, 'he doesn't know how to open the door!' He didn't, but finally succeeded, lurched in and sat down. He was drunk. He smelt. A sort of horror ran around the carriage. It was as if they had all seen Banquo's ghost."
What others think of us - and our Government's policies - directly affect visitor numbers, says Wheeler. And the worse our image is overseas the less visitors are inclined to come here.
Tourists, particularly from Britain and Europe, could potentially be turned off coming to Australia because of our immigration policies, he says.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics released figures last week showing a decline in overseas visitors in May, and Wheeler considers Australia's immigration policy was a factor.
"We've created a lot of bad publicity for ourselves worldwide," Wheeler says. "We've gone out there turning ships around; you see that book by the captain of the Tampa in every bookshop in Scandinavia. It's as big a negative effect as you can possibly ask for."
Although Australia's peak tourist body, Tourism Australia, disagrees, arguing there is a lack of statistics supporting Wheeler's assertion, the issue was raised by the Federal Government last year when an internal report said tourists were visiting New Zealand rather than Australia. This was, the report said, partly due to our poor international image, stemming from immigration and refugee policies and the Tampa crisis. It said Australia's image was perceived to be racist.
David Fickling wrote in The Guardian last year: "Australia, once the lucky country, is now better recognised as the unfriendly island, always offering the cold shoulder to outsiders ... It's a picture which has become so widespread overseas that - according to one internal government report - tourists have already started spurning Australia for the seemingly more benevolent destination of New Zealand."
Christopher Brown, the CEO of Tourism & Transport Forum, is aware of the negative perceptions. For a country that was once global tourism's golden child, there are jitters in the industry whenever Australia's reputation is attacked abroad, he says.
"We certainly brought to the Federal Government's attention during One Nation [the emergence of the political party] that social policies do have an impact commercially. We need to be mindful of social matters."
Negative social policies can hurt Australia's "brand", Brown argues - and that can hurt business. "There are problems with the brand being tarnished. Australia was on the front page of [France's] Le Monde with a condemnation of the Tampa crisis. There have been protests in Japan over logging of our old growth forests in Tasmania. We've seen the world is aware of us," he says.
He says the forum has written to the Prime Minister, John Howard, with concerns about logging in Tasmania. "We need to go beyond the brochure," he says. "We've written to him saying these things resonate around the world. Particularly in the German and North American markets, where they care about the environment they holiday in."
This type of tourist is becoming desirable in Australia, says Brown. "[Joe] Hockey is trying to take the market away from cheap, packaged holidays. It's a risk - but an acceptable risk. When you chase the lucrative platinum market with more independent, well-heeled customers, these customers think more of the issues of destinations. They will be thinking about values."
But Brown is unconvinced that negative perceptions about Australia have financially impacted on the tourist industry - even among the more politically savvy backpacker crowd.
Guest arrivals in hostels have recorded an increase of 21.9 per cent since 2000, according to the latest (June) Survey of Tourism Accommodation. And since 2000 the number of working holiday visas granted has increased by 19.2 per cent.
Tourism Australia is also optimistic, saying that if the bureau's statistics on visitor numbers are seasonally adjusted, things do not look as grim. Its figures show that 2.1 million people have visited Australia so far this year, up 14 per cent from the same time last year.
Ken Boundy, the managing director of Tourism Australia, says: "People have not turned off coming to Australia. We have more than our fair share in global growth due to consistent marketing of this country and a pent-up global demand for tourism."
So what are we worried about?
Wheeler is still not convinced that Australian tourism has recovered since the SARS crisis and the intensified threat of global of terrorism.
Sales of Lonely Planet's Australia book, once the company's best seller, have slipped, a sign that the country has become a bit on the nose as a destination, Wheeler says.
But unlike terrorist violence and the spread of disease, he says Australia's perception abroad is something we may be able to control: "There are other factors, such as the Australian dollar appreciating and regional concerns, such an Indonesia, which affect visitor numbers, but immigration policies can't be overlooked. There is an election coming up."
A hot seller now at Lonely Planet is the New Zealand guide.
Says Wheeler: "New Zealand is having a real run at the moment. It's because of a whole bunch of factors including Lord of the Rings, but they've not joined in the madness of Iraq. When we were shipping people off to Nauru, New Zealand was saying, 'We'll have them'."
Brown admits New Zealand is catching up to Australia as a tourist destination. "For 20 years they have been chasing us and now they've done it," he says.
In 2001 a study showed visitors to New Zealand had increased by 6.7 per cent while those to Australia fell by 1.5 per cent. In the first eight months of 2002, arrivals in New Zealand rose by 4.1 per cent; Australia recorded a drop of 5 per cent.
If that's Government policy or just the passing of the tourist torch to the next golden child, we don't know.
But Brown warns: "It's in the long-term commercial and long-term moral interests for tourism to do the best thing socially and for the environment. The world is watching."