Qantas announced on November 27 to suspend its $ 50 million contribution to Tourism Australia following the attempt of ex CEO Geoffrey Dixon to take over the shares of the Australian carrier and kick off current CEO Alan Joyce…
SYDNEY- The announcement ten days ago of a possible take-over of Qantas shares by a group of Australian investors led by some veterans of the Australian airline continues to make waves. The bid of Qantas ex-CEO Geoffrey Dixon and ex-CFO Peter Gregg to buy shares of the carrier is clearly targeted at blocking Emirates Airlines to become Qantas’ partner and firing from his position the current CEO Alan Joyce.
Geoffrey Dixon just forgot that he is also the Chairman of State Agency Tourism Australia -a rather honorific position- which is now denounced by Qantas. Joyce declared to Australian media that Dixon’s involvement into a change of share-owners is a “clear conflict” with his role in the government-backed tourism promotion agency. “This conflict has arisen from the involvement of Tourism Australia’s chairman with a syndicate that is actively canvassing fundamental changes to the Qantas Group strategy, including the proposed partnership with Emirates,” the airline said. “Qantas cannot continue to collaborate with an agency whose chairman is a member of a syndicate committed to unravelling Qantas’ structure and direction.”
Alan Joyce announced to suspend its financial support to the tourism State Agency. Qantas provided US$ 53 million to the agency over a three-year period. Talking on Wednesday during an aviation meeting, Alan Joyce reassured the tourism industry that “not one dollar of tourism marketing will be lost as a result of this decision.” The carrier plans in fact to shift the funding to individual State Tourism bodies as well as tourism operators.
Fund suspension into Tourism Australia will however only be enforced from June 2013, following the end of the current contract between both parties. According to Tourism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy, Qantas is contractually obligated to work with the agency on several future events such as Australia Tourism Exchange (ATE) which is taking place next April.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
