Tourism puts forth its election priorities

SYDNEY - Australia’s peak body representing the $30 billion export tourism industry, the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC), has presented its 2013 election priorities to representatives from both major parties ahead of the federal election in September.
 
The document outlines the issues, priorities and opportunities for tourism industry growth and success into the future and some of the key elements that will help deliver even greater capacity for the industry over the coming years.
 
In launching the document, ATEC Managing Director, Felicia Mariani said government’s across Australia needed to recognise the value tourism delivers to state and federal economies.
  
“The services sector has long been the mainstay of economies across the globe while manufacturing, mining and automotive have known boom and bust and the services sector provides the safety net when these industries start their cyclical decline."
 
Ms Mariani said that over 80% of Australia’s working-age population are employed in the services sector.  “At its peak mid-last year, mining employed 276,000 people and the auto industry employed around 50,000 people across the country – this in comparison to the tourism industry which directly employs around half a million people.
 
“That’s nearly double the mining sector and ten times the automotive sector in terms of direct jobs contributing to state and federal economies. We remain one of the few major export industries which is demonstrating growth despite setbacks such as the strong Aussie dollar, restrictive regulatory frameworks and extraordinarily high labour costs.”
 
Ms Mariani said ATEC would continue to advocate on one of the most pressing issues facing the tourism industry, the high cost of labour.  “The high cost of labour in this country is making us uncompetitive on a global stage, affecting our ability to attract investment.
 
“The recent increase to the minimum wage adds yet another impost to the penalty rates that the industry is already struggling to manage in their business operations. These consistent body blows are forcing too many tourism operators to the wall – but where is the ‘too big to fail’ safety net that seems to apply to so many other industries?”
 
The ATEC 2013 Election Priorities seek a commitment from all parties in areas under the Tourism 2020 Strategy.

Sourced: TravelDailyNews