Annual Report 2010-2011 - Tourism Australia

Chairman’s Report
My first year as Chairman of the Tourism Australia Board has
seen some big ideas, big changes and even bigger challenges. The
continuing struggle towards recovery in key global economies –
particularly the USA and the UK – and the uncertainty around
sovereign debt in continental Europe were always going to
present challenges for Australian tourism. However, the added
blow of the severe flooding across Queensland, Northern New
South Wales and Victoria, and Cyclone Yasi in Queensland,
coupled with the devastating earthquakes in New Zealand and
Japan, certainly made this last financial year a testing one.
The Australian economy continued to benefit from robust economic growth
through most of Asia, which translated into significant growth in arrivals from
key Asian markets. China was the standout performer, growing by 26 per cent
during the year. However, economic difficulties led to declines in traditional
strongholds, with UK visitors down 3 per cent and visitors from the USA down
5 per cent, pushing the latter country into fourth place behind China for visitor
arrivals. Overall, international visitors to Australia had increased by 3 per cent
at year end, a significant achievement given the circumstances.
Similarly on the domestic front, despite the high Australian dollar increasing
the attractiveness of an overseas holiday, it was encouraging to see a 4 per
cent increase in domestic overnight trips over the year and a slowdown in
growth of those heading overseas.
The Reserve Bank of Australia has forecast that a high dollar is “likely to persist
and is not just a temporary development”. This has been, and will continue
to be, a key consideration for Tourism Australia as we continue to emphasise
not only the experiences that differentiate Australia from other countries, but
also the key value propositions that make Australia such a worthwhile tourism
experience. Moreover, Tourism Australia launched a long-term strategy, the
2020 Tourism Industry Potential, to encourage growth in the industry over
the next decade and to help ameliorate the impact of market downturns and
currency fluctuations.
The strategy sets out a clear vision of success for our industry. Its focus is to
double overnight visitor expenditure from $70 billion to $140 billion by 2020.
The initiative is a ‘call to arms’ to not only increase visitation but also to drive
the investment and job numbers that will sustain the industry into the future.
It is critical that everyone in the industry speaks and acts with one voice as we
work to accelerate the growth in Asian markets – most notably China, India,
Indonesia and Korea – and maintain a focus on our traditional strongholds in
Japan, New Zealand, the UK and the USA.
2 Chairman’s Report