ATE unites behind Tourism Australia initiative

The 2020 Tourism Industry Potential is "the missing piece" which will help galvanize a "very disparate industry", according to Tourism Australia (TA) managing director Andrew McEvoy.

Speaking at the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE) in Sydney yesterday, the TA boss said that this year’s ATE would help rally unified support for its ambition to see overnight tourism expenditure doubled to AU$140 billion by 2020.

“The ‘Potential’ provides a clear vision for the industry and all levels of government to support a unifying direction to improve Australia’s tourism performance,” Mr McEvoy said, adding that the initiative “focused on market opportunities” with an aim of keeping Australia “ahead of the competition".

According to TA, last year saw a record 5.9 million trips to Australia, an increase of 5.4 per cent on the year before, whilst January 2011 saw a year-on-year increase of 5.1 per cent. andnbsp;

“The story is [arrivals from] Europe and America are fairly flat, but New Zealand, nearby Asia and North Asia are growing exceptionally well,” Mr McEvoy said.There was positive news from North America however, following the success of last year’s visits by Oprah, whose shows were broadcast to some 48 million people in North America.

Mr McEvoy told ATE delegates that 74 per cent of those aware of Oprah’s Aussie Adventure thought Australia was worth travelling to, with the TA boss adding that the visit represented "a huge effort that is already starting to bear fruit".

Talking of the recent crises in Japan, Mr McEvoy said that Japan would “galvanize", saying that Western Japan would recover more quickly than the rest of the country."It's in their DNA to want to travel … and Australia will remain a good option.”

Source = etravelblackboard