Asian tourists 'needed'

THE FRASER Coast must look to Asia to keep the tourism industry afloat as the crisis in Europe deepens.

Spiros Papadopoulos, the senior markets economist at National Australia Bank, told the combined Chambers of Commerce for Maryborough and Hervey Bay yesterday that geography was destiny.

Mr Papadopoulos warned that the financial crisis in Europe could take up to 15 years to fix, while US markets were also wallowing in a trough of low growth.

He told The Chronicle that this could mean the local tourism industry should consider attracting international visitors from the growing Asian markets, such as China.

When informed the Fraser Coast Regional Council and Tourism Fraser Coast had already begun looking at strategies to bring more Chinese tourists to the region, Mr Papadopoulos said they were on the right track.

Councillor Gerard O'Connell, who attended the meeting, agreed the Fraser Coast needed to look closely at their overall tourism product and service to determine the best way to bring more Asian tourists, given the expected downturn in visitor numbers from Europe and the USA.

Cr O'Connell said another important factor to take from Mr Papadopoulos' speech was the importance of improving consumer confidence.

He said it was important that the council kept pushing incentives to improve confidence.

Source - frasercoastchronicle.com.au