Australia’s place in price competitiveness was well down – ranking 137th out of 140 and only one place behind the UK which has introduced heavy fees on long-haul travel through its Air Passenger Duty.
The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013, released by the World Economic Forum has ranked Australia as 11th in the world in our tourism offering when factors such as transport connectivity, infrastructure, natural resources, health, safety, policy settings and environmental sustainability are compared amongst 140 countries worldwide.
“This report is very good news for Australia on many fronts, particularly on the issue of our natural environment, where it notes we have the highest number of World Heritage Listed sites in the world,” ATEC Managing Director, Felicia Mariani said.
“This supports the recent research undertaken by Tourism Australia which identifies our natural environment as one of the key drivers for inbound visitation and particularly for visitors from China and the US.”
Set against 14 measurements of tourism competitiveness, Australia rates extremely well in critical areas such as natural resources, air infrastructure, general tourism infrastructure, policy settings – including increased bi-lateral air service agreements – and our advanced visa processing services.
“A key achievement for Australia in this global benchmarking study is our competitiveness in the transport infrastructure area, particularly with respect to the excellent bilateral aviation agreements we have in place.”
The primary area of deficiency for the destination was in the price competitiveness category.
“This report clearly shows cost is a major contributor to a destination’s overall competitiveness and why creating solutions to offset our high cost of travel and tourism is crucial to allowing the other key factors in the competitiveness equation to not be overshadowed by our ticket price.”
Australia’s place in price competitiveness was well down – ranking 137th out of 140 and only one place behind the UK which has introduced heavy fees on long-haul travel through its Air Passenger Duty.
Ms Mariani said while Australia’s high dollar had often been identified as a negative incentive for travel it was really the additional costs around taxes and duties which undermined our price competitiveness.
“Last year, ATEC successfully advocated with other industry associations against the proposed indexation of our Passenger Movement Charge to CPI that would have seen an annual embedded increase on this already high tax on entering Australia.
“This is why the Australian Government should also refrain from any further increases to the application fees for a Working Holiday Visa, with recent increases already taking the cost of that visa up $70 to $350, nearly doubling of the fee since 2005. Australia now has one of the highest visa fees in this category.
“Our global competitiveness is another reason that Government needs to seriously consider adjustments to the WHV 417 guidelines, as proposed in the ATEC submission from last February.
“Among those recommendations is the proposition to grant tourism the same ‘recognised industry’ status as mining, agriculture, horticulture, construction, forestry and fishing allowing workers in our industry to qualify for the automatic second year extension to their visa if they work 88 days in a regional area of Australia.
“This international report shows that Australia fares extremely well in our competitiveness on the global stage, but the high costs associated to visiting this country impacts on our overall position.
“The Australian Government has the opportunity to make adjustments that will improve our international competitiveness and ATEC will continue to work in collaboration with the key decision makers to advocate for these changes.”
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales. She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
