Effect Of Tourism Industry Growth On Small Business: A Case Study Of Flight Centre In Brisbane (Essay).

A critical understanding of the attitudes and beliefs, players and influences that exist and the extent to which these help or hinder people and their organisations as they strive to achieve success.

A critical understanding and sound knowledge of the systems, processes and routines that underpin people leadership and management and the basics of people resourcing, learning/development and performance management.

A critical understanding and sound knowledge of the characteristics of successful organisations and of high performance people management.

An understanding, explanation and critical evaluation of how an employee's performance is measured and the impact of individuals and groups on business performance.

Critical analysis of line managers' roles and responsibilities especially with regard to the management and leadership of employees.

Current trend of the tourism industry of Australia

Australia is one of the most popular countries in respect to tourism. People from all over the world come to Australia for such purpose. Some of the main tourist attractions in Australia are Sydney opera house, Great Barrier Reef, Sydney Harbour Bridge. Some of the tourists visit Australia to see it wildlife. Over the period of time tourism has become one of the major sources of income in Australia. This tourism in Australia has contributed significantly towards businesses of small entrepreneurs (Amelung & Nicholls, 2014). In this project report we are trying to evaluate such effect on small business owner working in tourism sector of Australia. Business under evaluation is “Flight Centre” that is located in Brisbane. We have designed a research which will help us to understand current climate of tourism in Australia and its effect on “Flight centre”. Through evaluation of results of this research we will be able to understand growth prospective of the organisation.

Along with the evolution of the tourism sector in Australia from the 16^th century includes various development of the tourism sector and it has acted as one of the most vital process of income for the country (Ruhanen et.al, 2015). The establishment of the statutory authority by the Government of Australia has undergone the Tourism Australia act 2004 so as to see the various marketing and the development purpose of the tourism sector in Australia. The authority had an objective of increasing the number of potential tourists by the process of spreading the awareness about the different tourist places in Australia. The authority also focuses on the local tourists as well as the international tourists. The authority also provides some special considerations for the international tourists so as to have much more profit and have a larger gain. Various research on the international travel, domestic travel and development strategies of tourism in the country is conducted by the authority (Forsyth et.al, 2014).

The main reason for the increasing Tourism in Australia is because of the high demand amongst the international travellers. This is evident from the fact that in 2016 money spend by international travellers has increased by 14.1% as compared to 2015. In 2016 total revenue from tourism is $ 47.5 billion which has increased by 5.3% as compared to 2015. In 2016 total share of tourism sector is 3% of total GDP of Australia. Development rate of tourism sector can be evaluated from the fact that this sector is increasing as the rate of 3 times faster than rest of the Australian economy. Not only has it affected financial condition of country by also helps in generating jobs for people of Australia. In 2016 580800 people are directly employed in tourism sector which is 5 % of total population of Australia. Hence from the above stats we can say that tourism sector in Australia is increasing at steady rate and it is expected to grow in near future (Government of Australia, 2016).   

Survey on International Visitors-December 2016

According to the International visitor survey 2016 it has been seen that the spending by the international visitors on Australian tourism is around $39.1 billion which was quite unpredictable (abs.gov.au, 2018). This can be better stated that there has been hike of about 35 per cent in the last three years which in turn helps in supporting the Jobs of Australia along with bordering the economy of Australia.

Tourists from various parts of the world visit Australia and they act as one of the major sources for the economy of Australia. The chart given below shows the amount of income that Australia has gained from the international tourists:

Fig 1: Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics

According to the chart provided above it can be clearly stated that the tourists form New Zealand make up the distinctive part of Australian Tourism market as the tourists form New Zealand take tours which are of short packages and this this tours are highly concentrated on the iconic sights and the views of the Australian native animals (abs.gov.au, 2018).

Fig 2: Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics

The class of visitors in Australia mainly involves the young peoples from the countries of Western Europe and North America. This type of tourists spends a lot of time in Australia for the purpose of exploring the country more and more. Along with this they also take part in the working holidays for the purpose of enabling them in staying for a longer time in the country (tra.gov.au, 2018). The visas for working holidays is provided to those tourists who are having an age of 18 to 30 and is mainly for the Western European Citizens along with the citizens of Canada and some of the developed East Asian nations which includes Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

The estimated domestic tourism market of Australia is about $63 billion. According to survey of 2009 it has been seen that there was a slump of about 10% regarding the number of visitor nights. Domestic tourism can also be considered to be general along with particularly being a free caravan and a campaign site for overnight accommodations. It was seen that this was of great demand according to the survey conducted tin the year of 2012. The peoples of Australia are big domestic travellers and along with this each town is having a profusion of seaside resorts, mountain retreats, plentiful national parks, rivers, fishing locations, wine growing regions and along with this there is also a domestic visitation of the various tourist spots (tra.gov.au, 2018). There is a peak in during the holidays in the schools.

Types of Tourists in Australia:

The tourism market of Australia is stated below which is based upon the various incomes from different counties of the world.

Fig 3: Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics

There are several tourist places in Australia and some of them are listed below:

1. Hervey Bay: This is one of the most popular tourist town of Australia which is having an ample amount of opportunities for the purpose of watching the whales and along with this there are also various places in the coastline of Australia from where the whales can be seen.
2. Fraser Island: This is considered to be the largest sand island which is having a stretch of about 1480km2. Along with this the island is also the largest island of Queensland. The island is being inhabited by humans for about 5000 years. The main attractions of this island are the rainforests, eucalyptus woodland, mangrove forests wallum along with peat swamps, sand dunes and coastal heaths (tra.gov.au, 2018). There are various ways of reaching this island and this includes the ferry from the river heads to the Kingfisher Bay and Wanggoolba Creek or from Inskip Point to North of Rainbow Beach to Hook point or by the use of chartered flight from the Maroochydore Airport.
3. Great Barrier Reef: This is a great tourist attraction and attracts almost around two million visitors every year.  The management is very much careful about this place and this includes things like the permission for camping’s along with any other marine tourisms within the park of the great barrier reef so as to ensure that the tourists are causing less harm to the reef (tra.gov.au, 2018). The two major attractions which are included in this natural place is the “Uluru, Kakadu National park” and “Faser Island”. In the year of 2013 Uluru was awarded as the “2013 Qantas Australian Tourism Award” along with this this place was named as the best major tourist spot of Australia.
4. Sydney Opera House: Sydney Opera House is an another tourist attraction place of Australia. The Shopping area and the Casinos that are present in this place acts as a major Drawcard for the wealthy Chinese tourists. Other things like the wine, indigenous culture and nature tourism acts as the major reason for the attraction of the tourists.

Along with all this tourist places there are also other tourist’s places and various events which serves a huge amount for the Australian economy. The events include the annual Sydney “Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras” which attracts a huge amount of international tourists (abs.gov.au, 2018). Other events which attracted a lot of international tourists was the “Sydney Olympics” of 2000 which attracted about 362,000 domestic visitors and 110,000 international tourists, the “Rugby World Cup” of 2003 which attracted around 65,000 international visitors and many more. Some other tourist places are namely the:

• Great Barrier Reef
• Red Centre
• Great Ocean Road
• Barossa Valley
• Kakadu
• The Kimberley
• Kangaroo Island
• Byron Bay
• Tasmanian Wilderness
• Australian Alps
• Ningaloo
• Flinders Ranges
• Fraser Island
• Sydney Harbour Bridge
• Freycinet
• Gippsland
• Uluru
• Sydney Opera House
• Phillip Island
• Melbourne Cricket Ground
• Blue Mountains
• Namadgi National Park

Flight Centre is one of the largest retail travel outlet of Australia and was founded in the year of 1982 which had its headquarter in Brisbane, Australia. The company is also listed in the Australian Stock Exchange which has an annual turnover that is about more than $20 billion. It employees around 20,000 peoples worldwide (flightcentre.com, 2018). Flight centre is having around 2800 shops and this business runs under various retails and corporate brands.

Tourism has act as one of the vital source for the economic growth of the country. For this reason, the Government of Australia has a great focus over the tourism sector of Australia.  According to them this tourism industry is very much beneficial for the growth of the country economically. According to Gössling et al., (2010), “the prospect of the proper tourism growth of a particular country not only depends over the resources which the country possesses, but properly allocating those in front of the visitors so that they can fetch across every part of the continent” (abs.gov.au, 2018). It is also suggested by the tourism sector of the country will be economically benefited by the involvement of the government in the particular field, proper distributing channels and by this they will be able to represent the heritage of the country and the most important one that is the growing prospects of the travel agencies or retail travel outlets across the country. Flight Centre is included in one of the travel outlets which has proven itself as one of the best outlet by providing quality service to the customers which includes both domestic as well as oversea customers and making it a venture which will be fruitful for country.

• Inbound domestic tourism in Australia

Market of Australian tourism:

From the survey conducted on the basis of number of international immigrants coming to the country of Australia has stated that this large number of people coming to Australia has a fascinating impact over the tourism business of Australia. Moreover, in the year 2000, when the country had organised the Olympic games in Sydney had made a great contribution to the inbound domestic tourism to region Sydney. This has helped all the travel agencies long with the Flight Centre to make a higher space in the market of competition. Moreover, Forsyth et al., (2014), opines because of the growth of the tourism sector of Australia in the recent years has made a great opportunity for employment for the people of Australia.

• Competitive business in flight centre:

The number of international students coming to Australia is increasing day by day which in turn makes the possibility for the Flight Centre and other travel agents to provide amenities in travelling along with having an aim of earning profit for the organisation (flightcentre.com, 2018). One of the negative vibe that is going to affect Flight Centre is the growth of other small and medium sized travel agencies. For such cases the company Flight Centre is facing a considerable challenge in the holding up of the respective market growth in the competitive business sector.

Flight Centre is one of the recognized travel agencies in Australia and has reached this state in the long course of time. According to Rosenbaum-Elliott et al., (2015), “with the country being facing considerable growth in the tourism and travel sector, it is always implicative for the company to be economically benefitted as well as hold on their respective market growth in the respective business sector”. The tourism sector of Australian includes transportation which acts as one of the fundamental part of this sector. Most of the tourist place in Australia are connected by means of transport like cars, flights, and many more. For such situations it has been seen that the company is much more benefited as they are having an online multi-channel service where the customers are provided with a facility of booking.

Due to the mobility of the various policies during travelling all around the country of Australia by the tourists from all over the world has been greatly benefited by the launching of the different holiday packages for the tourists at a very low rate. Flight Centre can engage in recruiting more people in the company. This makes the opportunities for the engagement of the employees high. According to Mok et al., (2013), the recruitment of the tour guides has been proven to be very much beneficial for the company even in some of the remotest places of the country. And after getting the support from the Government for making the tourism and the hospitality of the country much more attractive to the tourists.  Along with this the company Flight Centre has been more encouraged for extension of the market capture so as to make the tourists travel across various regions of the country.

According to their commitment they also provide discounts for the peoples. The employees of the flight centre are provided with personal holidays, which also includes flights, accommodations tours travel and many more. Along with this corporate lounge membership are also provided to the employees so as to help them to make sacrifice their salaries which are related to the products of the travels and the services. A remuneration structure is also provided to the employees which provides a direct reward to the employees for their hard work also for the results, Flight Centre is committed toward providing help for the employees as well as the customers in maximising the savings along with investing in the business and share for the success of the company (flightcentre.com, 2018).

Conclusion

The study helps us to conclude that the inception of the tourism and hospitality sector is from the 19^th century.  Some acute contributing role has been shown towards the company by the Government of Australia in process of developing a strong current trend of the tourism. Flight Centre is provided with a fruitful opportunity for the purpose of expanding their business entity in the market of tourism. With global recession it has been seen that the tourism sector of Australia has suffered a considerable amount of slip during the recession but it has been able to face the challenges and has overcome them. Flight Centre has proven itself to be one of the best travel agencies in the country of Australia by providing various facilities of the tourists along with fulfilling the demands of the tourists from different parts of the word.

Reference

abs.gov.au. (2018). Tourism and Transport - Australian Bureau of Statistics. Abs.gov.au. Retrieved 10 January 2018, from https://www.abs.gov.au/Tourism-and-Transport

Amelung, B., & Nicholls, S. (2014). Implications of climate change for tourism in Australia. Tourism Management, 41, 228-244.

flightcentre.com. (2018). Home. Flight Centre. Retrieved 17 January 2018, from https://www.flightcentre.com/

Forsyth, P., Dwyer, L., Spurr, R., & Pham, T. (2014). The impacts of Australia's departure tax: Tourism versus the economy?. Tourism Management, 40, 126-136.

Gössling, S., Hall, C. M., Peeters, P., & Scott, D. (2010). The future of tourism: Can tourism growth and climate policy be reconciled? A mitigation perspective. Tourism Recreation Research, 35(2), 119-130.

Mok, C., Sparks, B., & Kadampully, J. (2013). Service quality management in hospitality, tourism, and leisure. Routledge.

Rosenbaum-Elliott, R., Percy, L., & Pervan, S. (2015). Strategic brand management. Oxford University Press, USA.

Ruhanen, L., Whitford, M., & McLennan, C. L. (2015). Indigenous tourism in Australia: Time for a reality check. Tourism Management, 48, 73-83.

tra.gov.au. (2018). Home | Tourism Research Australia. Tra.gov.au. Retrieved 10 January 2018, from https://www.tra.gov.au/