Melbourne excels in catering for tourist needs

Melbourne towers over other Australian cities when it comes to catering for tourist needs, an industry survey has revealed.
A Roy Morgan poll of 350 tourism industry people showed that 45% named Melbourne as the city with the best strategies to meet future tourism industry needs. Sydney and Brisbane were far behind and other cities hardly showed up at all.
Sydney scored 13%, Brisbane 4%, Adelaide 3% and Darwin and Perth a measly 2% each.
Tony Charters, convenor of next month's Tourism and Events Excellence conference in Melbourne, said the results didn't say much for industry perceptions of Brisbane "and also Sydney for that matter".
Charters told Melbourne's Herald-Sun newspaper that he initially thought the result might have been biased by the sample being taken in Victoria, "but we checked back with Roy Morgan and there is not a discernible issue there ï¾ the figures are statistically valid."
Charters added that Brisbane had been living too long off the coat tails of destinations like the Gold and Sunshine Coasts and needed more attractions like the Gallery of Modern Art.
Charters believes Queensland as a whole had been on a downward slide for 10 years.
Charters stressed that the survey had asked which city was best attuned to the future needs of the tourism industry ï¾ not which city had the best attractions or most appeal.
The Tourism and Events Excellence conference will be held at the MCG from 5th September 2011.
For more information contact 07 3012 9575.
secretariat@teeconference.com
http://www.teeconference.com