Agencies combine to drive tourism investment

Investment in the Australian tourism industry stands to be boosted by a new five-year alliance of key players.

The alliance was agreed on Wednesday (2nd May) between the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) and Tourism Australia, the Federal Government agency charged with promoting Australia as a tourism destination both internationally and domestically.

At a time when the local industry is battling lower demand due to the higher dollar and increased discount airline capacity to international destinations, Tourism Australia, the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism (DRET) and Austrade have come together with a new framework to better promote the sector and facilitate investment opportunities for domestic and offshore investors.

Tourism Australia Chief Executive Andrew McEvoy explained that the alliance aims to open up more opportunities for local and foreign investors to help bankroll a range of local projects.

McEvoy stated "we acknowledge that investment sourced both locally and internationally is vital to growing the Australian tourism industry and achieving our industry's goal of doubling overnight visitor expenditure to up to $140 billion a year by 2020. This is the level of growth we need to bring new investment to life.

"As part of a recently expanded remit for Tourism Australia, we're broadening our focus to play a greater role to help facilitate tourism investment opportunities and more strongly align demand and supply side activities."

McEvoy added that Asia would be a prime target for the alliance, explaining "Australia is within the strongest performing tourism region and largest global aviation market in the world. Our country is poised to take advantage of some of the exciting opportunities being created through the powerhouse economies of Asia, particularly in China, our fastest growing and highest international spending market."

Media and gambling moghul James Packer is looking to attract more wealthy Chinese tourists to Australia with his plans for a new casino resort development in Sydney at Barangaroo. Packer's Crown Ltd, owners of casinos in Perth and Melbourne, has taken a 10% stake in Echo Entertainment the owner of Sydney's Star City Casino and while pushing to increase his interest he also wants to use Star's licence to launch the Barangaroo development.

Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson also launched the Australian Tourism Investment Guide, which outlines up to 80 investment ready opportunities and proposed tourism projects in Australia. Produced to provide investors with an overview of potential tourism investments in Australia, the Guide reveals that $42 billion worth of projects are either planned or underway in Australia.

The production of the Guide, by Tourism Australia together with Austrade and DRET has been welcomed by the industry group Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF).

TTF Chief Executive John Lee believes that the Tourism Investment Guide underlines the importance of backing tourism, stating "the joining together of Tourism Australia with Austrade to create this prospectus of hotel investment opportunities in Australia is to be commended. Tourism Australia knows the market and Austrade has the network of international investors.

"Aggressive targets have been set in Tourism 2020 for growing the visitor economy. These targets cannot expect to be met without additional accommodation particularly in our capital cities.

"Occupancy is already running above 80% in Perth and Sydney, which effectively means hotels are full mid-week with limited breathing space.

"What the Australian Tourism Investment Guide does is showcase that Australia has some fantastic accommodation investment opportunities. As Australia re-orients itself towards Asia in this century, we would expect some of this investment to come from Asia. This in turn would promote Australian properties to Asian travel distribution markets."

Complementing the Tourism Investment Guide,the activating the partnership, Tourism Australia, Austrade and DRET unveiled related communication tools including a marketing video and website creating a single destination to assist tourism investment decision-making.

Image shows Sydney's Star City Casino.

For more information go to www.tourisminvestment.com.au 

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