Tourism Australia chairman Geoff Dixon has issued a fresh call for the industry to form a united front in marketing Australia to the world.
Speaking in Tasmania today, Dixon warned that a failure to do so will create a fragmented and ineffective message.
China, Australia’s big tourism hope over the next decade, has already raised concern with industry leaders that Australia “speaks with too many voices”, he said.
Dixon urged airlines, state and territories and private companies to unite behind state and federal backed campaigns.
“It will, without doubt, make our marketing much more effective,” Dixon told the Australia Institute of Company Directors. “There are many, many voices promoting Australia internationally. All have legitimate messages but also all have finite resources to spend in an increasingly cluttered market.
“On visits to China and most recently Indonesia, both Andrew McEvoy, the managing director of Tourism Australia and I were told point blank that Australia spoke with too many voices. Tellingly, most of those voices did not have sufficient resources to make a real impact.
“To speak collectively about Australia through stronger and singular joint federal and state government backed foundation campaigns will, without a doubt, make our marketing much more effective.”
Earlier in his address, Dixon again reassured operators that Tourism Australia would not lose focus on traditional markets although he stressed “it could be some years before they recover from their current problems”.
