Tourism Australia has highlighted “quality of experience” as its major tactic to fight off stiffening competition from other markets.
Speaking at the Australian Tourism Exchange, managing director Andrew McEvoy admitted Australia was not a “mass volume” destination, ranking 48th in the world for international arrivals by the United Nations World Tourism
Organisation. But he highlighted a much higher ranking in terms of spend with Australia seventh in the world in terms of total tourism receipts with the number one spend per visitor.
“We’re not mass volume, but we are a high yielding destination that must have an accent on quality of experiences,” he said.
McEvoy described Australia as “one of the pioneers of tourism marketing,” but admitted the landscape was now “more complex”.
Growing competition from other markets was a key factor. While Australia had been the first country to get Approved Destination Status in China in 1999, around 130 destinations had now been approved.
“There are also 180 national tourism organisations trying to get same consumers as us in the UK,” he said. “We have to be better and better to be able to compete.”
While China and India will be key focuses for the tourism body over the coming years, McEvoy stressed a “balanced portfolio approach” and was optimistic that Europe would bounce back, although he admitted the UK was “difficult”.
He highlighted access a an ongoing issue, with a 54% increase in international air capacity required in order to achieve its Tourism 2020 plan.
But he reported 15% growth in international seats over the last year. “That’s ahead of what we need,” he said.
