Address by The Hon Tim Fischer MP, Deputy Prime Minister, Leader of the National Party, Minister for Trade, to the The Tourism Council of Australia, Sydney, 28 February 1997

I am very pleased to be addressing such a high-level group of committed professionals involved in the tourism industry and I thank Bruce Baird for his invitation.

Tourism's Outstanding Export Performance

As Minister for Trade I am always happy to talk about tourism. For tourism has been a truly remarkable export success over the last decade or so. Last financial year, 1995-96, tourism was arguably Australia's leading export with earnings of $14.1 billion, almost double its level 5 years ago. This represents 12.8 per cent of Australia's total export earnings. The 4.2 million visitors who came here in 1996, an increase of 11.8 per cent from 1995, certainly brought their wallets with them.

Moreover, tourism's export earnings in that year accounted for nearly two thirds of our total services exports and were nearly twice that of our largest individual merchandise export, coal, which brought in $7.8 billion, and more than twice our next largest merchandise export, gold, at $5.6 billion.

As a whole, the industry contributed $46.9 billion to the Australian economy in 1993-94 which represented around 7 per cent of GDP. In that year it provided about 536,000 jobs directly, representing around 7 per cent of the nation's workforce. Of the total, $32.5 billion came from domestic tourism. So the tourism industry is one which the Government is committed to supporting - we very much wish to see its meteoric success continue.

In one sense the growth in international tourism to Australia is hardly surprising - we have known for a long time that we had the most beautiful country in the world. We are lucky enough to be able to enjoy a sophisticated, contemporary and multicultural society in a vastly varied natural environment. Australia boasts magnificent beaches, mountains, snowfields, tropical rainforests, vast open fields, awesome deserts, as well as such unique attractions as Uluru, the Olgas and Kakadu.

Now the rest of the world, with the help of some well targeted marketing campaigns, is discovering Australia's magnificence.

The industry's success cannot be taken for granted, however. The competition internationally for the tourist dollar is hotting up, particularly in this region. We now have to contend with increasingly sophisticated marketing campaigns from Hawaii, New Zealand and South-East Asian beach resorts.

At the same time the region is also where our greatest opportunities lie. Our four leading source countries for visitor arrivals last year were Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The fastest growth, however, generally came from the Asian region. Numbers of visitors from Korea grew by over 30 per cent, now making it our fifth largest source country. China, Malaysia, New Zealand and the Philippines all grew at well over 20 per cent. Numbers of Hong Kong and Indonesian visitors grew in the order of 15 per cent.

We should pick up opportunities wherever they lie, of course, and not ignore the growth in newer (albeit smaller) markets such as South Africa and Latin America, both growing at over 25 per cent.

In addition to Australia's higher profile, the increasing number of travellers from the region has been substantially driven by the rapid economic growth in East Asia. Happily, we can look forward to more of the same for the foreseeable future. World Bank predictions have East Asia growing at over 7 per cent a year to the year 2004. That's two and a half times faster than the rest of the world.

The rapidly growing middle classes of our South-East Asian neighbours, in particular, offer substantial opportunities for the Australian tourist industry to attract even greater numbers to our shores. Nor should the industry overlook the opportunities to invest in the region where the potential returns are significant.

This is why projections for growth in the region's tourist industry are very rosy. Earnings from international trade in tourism in the APEC region were estimated in 1995 to be in the order of $160 to $170 billion. This is expected to double by the year 2010. Our own long-range forecasting for the Australian industry tells as happy a story. By the year 2005 we expect 8.8 million visitors, averaging around 8.9 per cent annual growth. These visitors are expected to generate $31 billion in export earnings, an average of around 8.8 per cent annual growth.

The Importance of Image

Carefully targeted marketing campaigns have been important to Australia's success in promoting itself as a tourist destination in recent years. I compliment those here who were involved in raising our international profile.

We can also thank the vibrant state of the Australian film industry for putting us in the spotlight at the Oscars. Shine and Babe certainly portray a very different Australia to Crocodile Dundee but I do not doubt that they will have their impact in raising interest in visiting here.

The Government too is taking steps to raise our profile internationally. The New Horizons campaign in New Delhi and the innovative New Images promotion in the UK and Australia project a contemporary image of Australia as the dynamic and technologically advanced nation it is.

The Sydney Olympics will also provide us with a unique opportunity to showcase Australia to the world. It will be an enormous boost to our promotion of Australia as a tourist destination. The consultancy firm KPMG has estimated that the Olympics will bring an additional 1.2 million visitors to Australia over the period 1994-2000.

Government Tourism Policies

The Coalition Government is committed to supporting the tourism industry wherever it can. I know that my colleague John Moore, Minister for Industry Science and Tourism, spoke to the Tourism Council Australia Conference in November last year about the specific policies put in place to assist your members.

Mr. Moore referred in particular to the Government's commitment to developing a National Strategy for Tourism, which would lay out its vision for the industry and the means of achieving it.

Also, we have provided tourism operators with full rate access to the Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) Scheme and allocated $10.4 million to the Tourism Development Program over two years.

I am, of course, also aware that the Council has a further list of reforms it would like to see in place and these requests will get due consideration in the budget process.

Broader Government Economic Policies

I would also like to talk to you today about the broader economic reform policies which the Government has put in place and which will particularly assist the tourism industry.

The Government is committed to a comprehensive set of policies designed to get the economic fundamentals right and create a better environment for business.

The Government is reducing government spending, establishing a more adaptable labour market, reducing the regulatory burden on business and improving the efficiency of infrastructure including telecommunications, energy and transport.

These policies will contribute to steady, sustainable growth in tourism, both domestic and international. In particular, domestic tourism revenue is susceptible to swings in the business cycle, highlighting the importance of sound domestic management.

For the tourism industry, the Government's labour market reforms are of particular importance.

It is well recognised that, in the tourism industry, customer service - anytime, anywhere - is a priority. This means that a cooperative workplace culture and flexible work arrangements are particularly important for tourism employers, and the Government's industrial relations reforms will assist to develop this.

Realising these aims will mean higher productivity and employment generally, with the tourism industry standing out as a prospective generator of new jobs.

The tourism industry also stands to gain from further reforms to the transport, communications and energy sectors. The decision to sell one third of Telstra and the successful negotiations on the single aviation market with New Zealand are two instances where the Government has moved forward on its microeconomic reform agenda.

Finally, the tourism industry stands out from other sectors with its high proportion of small and medium size businesses. The Government is particularly concerned to improve the overall regulatory climate so that small business can flourish.

In that regard, the Prime Minister will shortly be making a major Small Business Policy Statement which will also address the findings of the Small Business Deregulation Task Force.

Conclusion

I would like to conclude by thanking the industry for its sterling efforts in recent years and by encouraging you to maintain and even improve on your fine record as, arguably, Australia's leading exporter. The greater your success, the more jobs you create, and that is something which we strongly support . There are even more opportunities out there and we look forward to exciting results in the future.