Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Ryan, Mr Deputy Speaker, has hit on one key and critical point, and that is the work of Tim Fischer as the Chairman of Tourism Australia. Not only was this man an outstanding member of parliament and Deputy Prime Minister but he also brought value to the board of Tourism Australia by sheer virtue of the fact that he had been a trade minister. He had overseas contacts, he had overseas understanding and he knew markets; and he brought that to the board of Tourism Australia. It will be sad to see Tim go, because of the contribution that he has made, but we all get a little bit older and we also have a lot of demands on our time in other areas. In relation to the new CEO, Geoff Buckley, I think he is doing a tremendous job, as Scott Morrison did a tremendous job before him. Things progress and move on, but can I say Geoff Buckley is doing a tremendous job.

These programs that we are developing and rolling out across various countries will take time to pick up. As I said at the very beginning, unless you keep refreshing your ideas and your attitudes, unless you go out of your way to build new relationships with travel agents, with opinion makers in those countries who influence the local media, if you sit back and do what you have always done then you are going to achieve nothing better. You cannot ride on the past; you have to drive into the future. I think our new tourism markets that we are developing—as I said, particularly exciting will be those in China and India—will provide great benefits to Australia. The member for Batman talked about the drop-off in the Japanese market and then straightaway started to condemn the approaches we take to try to refresh our ideas and access to the Japanese market.

Towns like Cairns that are icons of the Great Barrier Reef and access points need to freshen up their ideas, their approach and their towns to create a new reason for tourists to get there. Tourism attitudes over the last 10 to 20 years have changed. They are no longer purely repetitive markets. This may be a one-time destination for people who come here and they may go to a different destination next time they take a holiday. I will give you an example of that.

The superyacht industry in Australia is a growing and emerging industry. Its total worth to Australia is around $850 million. A few of the key ports that they like to visit are the Gold Coast, Cairns and Sydney. The investment in infrastructure in those ports has provided opportunities for high-spend, high-yield markets to come to Australia. There are problems that evolve that we will need to deal with in relation to visas and those aspects—but it is a new approach. Why are they coming to Australia? These are boats that would traditionally tour the Gulf of Mexico or the Mediterranean, but new people, with new wealth and new opportunities, are not repetitive travellers. They will not go and spend every holiday on the Mediterranean on their boat. They will not go to the Caribbean every holiday. They are looking for a new adventure, a new place to fill, and Australia is very well placed to take up those opportunities.

I have had the pleasure of working with the superyacht industry through the Marine Industry Action Agenda and I know what is on the drawing board, the future plans and future opportunities that it will bring. Not only do they come here for their vacation or holiday; it also gives them an insight into Australia which can develop into an investment program perhaps for growing and emerging business benefits that they might want to achieve. I think that the next five to 10 years in tourism in Australia will grow in leaps and bounds in numbers, in yield and, the bottom line, in jobs, particularly in the southern Queensland region, and there will be employment growth through that facility.

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