Tourism Industry in Australia Samples for Students Myassignment

Question: Choose any Industry and Discuss the Reforms done or needed in that Industry. Answer: Introduction: The tourism industry in Australia makes up one of the most influential part of the economy. Only in the year 2014 to 2015 the industry accounted for about 3 percent of the GDP of the country and is calculated to have contributed around 47.5 billion dollars towards the GDP of the nation. Tourism that is domestic makes up an important part of this. As a matter of fact this accounts for about 73 percent of the total direct GDP made from tourism. In the sam eyar there were around 7.4 million people who arrived in Australia as visitors (Tourism.australia.com, n.d.) It also employs upwards of five hndred thousand people and constututes 5 percent of the total labour force. About 40 percent of those employed however are part time workers. Tourism has also been one of the main things contributing to the export earnings of the country with it singlehandedly contributing 8 percent in the 2010-2011. Australia has sprawling metropolis which are always a popular destination such as Melbournbe, Sydney and Brisbane. The worlds largest reef which is the Great Barrier Reef s also located here and attracts an enormous number of visitors each year (Managing our coastal zone in a changing climate, 2009). There is also the Australian outback and the wildlife and culture in these rural places which also has been a favourite for many years. Reforms taken: There has been a program called Tourism 2020 which aims to improve the Australian torurism industry. It is a national strategy which has been taken so as to help government in working with the industry so that they might be able to have twice the overnight expendutire of international as well as domestic tourists to somehwere between 115 billions dollars and 140 billions dolaars by 2020. To be able to acheieve there are certain things that are required. One of them is effective and high impact advertising campaigns run both locally and globally so as to increase the footfall in Australia. They also want around a five bundred thousand more people employed in the labour force by 2020 and hope that this would be needed to meet demand (Austrade.gov.au, n.d.). They also have plans for the increase in the aviation sector and how this could help with getting more travellers to Australia. The government of the Australia, state and the territory governments along with the key stakeholders in the tourism industry have been working so as to introduce reforms to better the industry. The key areas they have been seeking to reform include the case of visitor visas such that they are quicker easier and way more competitive. They also aim to develop a workforce skilled precisely at what they are doing in the tourism industry to further improve it. They also want to improve transport and reap the benefits in such that it would increase the number of tourists. The aviation industry particularly has been talked about along with improvements in the customer service industry in a bid to improve the flexibility to meet the demand generated in the tourism sector and to also increase the access that is required for the development of the industry. They also recommend increased cross portfolio collaboration within all levels of Australian Governments to plan and drive the reform of the visitor economy. They also hope to integrate national and state tourism plans into regional developme nt and local government planning to generate effective infrastructure to service regional communities, services to the visitors and encourage private investment in tourism infrastructure. This list of reforms have been made final under the Tourism 2020 Implementation Plan which is to be carried out between 2015 to 2020 and it was finalised in the August of 2015 and the carrying out of these activities as determined is to be done by the Australian Tourism minister. Except this there are some urgent changes which also need to be made in the infrastructure of the industry so as to retain goodwill. Firstly there is shortage of luxury accommodation in most of the major business cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth etc. It is seen that the occupancy rates for the luxury hotels tend to reach at around 90% while the occupancy rates for most other hotels is around 65% in peak season (Beirman, 2017). This has in turn lent it self to the stagnation of the business travel market in the country which is in strong contrast to how well the holiday market has grown. Another is that the cruise services are now a major source of income in the tourism industry but along with this there is requirement of ports where these cruises can dick. There is dearth of such docking ports most importantly in Sydney which is one of the places people want to visit the most. If the Sydney port is not able to offer ports that are exclusively for the use of these cruises t hen there might be problems with growth in this sector. There is also the issue of the railroad between Melbourne and Brisbane via Canberra and Sydney which is making glacial progress. The high speed ralways could take some of the pressure off the airports which is supposed to come under pressure with the increase in visitors. Till now the airports in Australia have been able to handle the pressure that is being given to them and is also equipped to handle increase in passengers. But having railways as a just as worthy alternative couldnt hurt. One of the most best ways to grow would be to focus on the Chinese tourist market which is starting to grow in Australia (Zarich, 2017). Conclusion: Even though tourism is poised to be one of the main contributors to the GDP there is some hesitance to take it seriously as a sector. It fails to factor in that it is a labour intensive industry and is thus able to provide employment to even low skilled workers. It is also a major contributor to the fall in the unemployment of the country when the economic performance on the whole of the country has been subpar (Pascoe, 2016). A large number of growths in retail products in touristy areas can also be attributed to this growth in tourism in the country. Thus it can be said that the holidays are very serious business. References Austrade.gov.au. (n.d.).Policy and Strategy - For Australian tourism providers - Austrade. [online] Available at: https://www.austrade.gov.au/Australian/Tourism/Policy-and-Strategy [Accessed 25 Apr. 2017]. Beirman, D. (2017).Australia needs to invest if it wants the tourism boom to continue. [online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/australia-needs-to-invest-if-it-wants-the-tourism-boom-to-continue-71407 [Accessed 26 Apr. 2017]. Managing our coastal zone in a changing climate. (2009). Canberra: The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia. Pascoe, M. (2016).Tourism is seriously good business for Australia. [online] The Sydney Morning Herald. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/tourism-is-seriously-good-business-for-australia-20160203-gml8iz.html [Accessed 26 Apr. 2017]. Tourism.australia.com. (n.d.).Tourism Statistics - Research - Tourism Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.tourism.australia.com/statistics.aspx [Accessed 25 Apr. 2017]. Zarich, K. (2017).Australia cashing in on Lunar New Year tourism. [online] www.sbs.com.au. Available at: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/01/27/australia-cashing-lunar-new-year-tourism [Accessed 26 Apr. 2017].