Essay: Tourism Perspectives Of The Asian Financial Crisis.

Discuss about the Tourism Perspectives Of The Asian Financial Crisis.

The Australian Tourism Industry Reforms

Australia is among the richest countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It has enjoyed economic expansion for the past ten years since the 2008 recession. The economy of Australia is free with a freedom score of about 80.9 and is ranked among the top five countries with the freest economies in the 2018 index (Michael, 2013).  Industries in the economy of Australia are open to competition from foreign investments and highly skilled labor force is readily available. This has led to economic prosperity of the nation of Australia and therefore it has continued to attract investments in the economy.

The industry of choice is tourism. Tourism is generally referred all the activities associated with visitors (Leiper, 2015). A visitor refers to a traveler who takes a trip to another place which is actually outside their environment for a short period of time which should be less than a year for their purposes which may be business, leisure or even other personal activities. The tourism industry in Australia is broad. It includes all business activities from other industries which deal with the provision of goods and services to tourists. These activities may include accommodation and traveling services among others. Tourism businesses therefore are broad and include all activities such as agencies of travel and tour services, companies which deal with hiring of motor vehicles, provision of services related to hospitality and provision of training as well as education services. Any industry which is categorized under tourism has its visitors consuming more than 26 percent of the total productivity within the industry.

The tourism industry is a crucial component of the economy of Australia. A number of reforms have been put in place by the government of Australia for the past ten years in order to improve the efficiency of the tourism industry (Crouch & Ritchie, 2009). These reforms have been successful and the contribution of the tourism industry to the gross domestic product of Australia has improved over the past years and is anticipated to follow the same trend in future. The following are the reforms which have been endorsed by the government of Australia in the tourism industry:

1. The building of digital capability

Digitalism has been essential in Australia especially when it comes to production, distribution and marketing of productions. A vast number of the citizens of Australia are online. Estimates show that more than eighty percent of the residents of Australia are online (Moore & Carter, 2014). The world at large is also migrating to digital era. Estimates show that currently more than fifty percent of the world is online and it is anticipated that by the year 2020 more than 65% of the world will be online. Digitalism in Australia has contributed much towards improving the operations not only within the tourism industry but also in other sectors of the Australian economy. The development of digital means of transactions has enabled the tourism industry in Australia to remain competitive internationally. Digitalism in the tourism industry of Australia has not been doing well for the past ten years but it is anticipated to improve in future. Estimates show that by the year 2016 only a third of the operators in the tourism sector had embraced tourist online booking and payment. This shows that the tourism operators’ ability to serve customers both internally and externally has been limited. More tourism operators have of late adopted digitally in the tourism industry of Australia. This has led to improvement of efficiency in this service industry and still much is expected in future. The government of Australia is committed to working hand in hand with the investors in the tourism sector and those who are indirectly involved in order to remain competitive internationally in as much as online opportunities in the tourism sector are concerned. The operators of the tourism sector of Australia have been encouraged by the government to embrace the advancement of information of information and communication technology so as to be able reach out more visitors both internationally and internationally by offering online transactions.

The Impact of Tourism Industry on Australian Economic Growth

The government of Australia has seen the success of this reform by undertaking various actions which include:

1. The Australian government has implemented the National Online Strategy for Tourism (NOST). Through this strategy, the Australian government has partnered with the operators in the tourism industry and implemented the set goals. The government has supported various operators within this industry to adopt digitalism at various stages of growth.
2. The government has enabled the implementation of the National Broadband Network. This network consists of various digital programs which are aimed at assisting business organizations to carry out their activities in a digital manner hence minimizing the operation costs.
3. The Australian government has supported the implementation of the 2020 Digital Marketing Strategy by developing strong social media strategies.
4. The Australian government has continued to monitor and encourage the adoption of digitalism by the various operators of the tourism sector.

1. Encouragement of investment in the tourism industry and implementation of the regulatory agenda

Investment in the tourism industry of Australia has been poor for the past ten years but a significant improvement is noted for each following year. During the year 2009, investment in the tourism industry was doubled by investment in the other industries such as the Agricultural sector (Butlin, 2013). This mostly has been resulted by the disproportionate policies put in place by the government. The government of Australia is working towards minimizing the various barriers to investment in this sector. For the past ten years, investment in the tourism industry has been improving but at very slow pace, clear evidence that the government is trying its best to improve the industry and still more improvement is anticipated in future. The Australian government has seen the success of this reform by undertaking the following actions:

1. The government of Australia has implemented the plan to support investment in the tourism industry and has supported various investors according to their needs at geographical basis. Various investors in the tourism industry have different needs according to their areas of location. Some investors face more hardships than others and the government has undertaken a plan to support them proportionately.
2. The operators in the tourism industry have joined the Australian government in identifying opportunities in the tourism investment and have promoted the implementation of these opportunities.
3. The Australian government has supported the use of Destination Management tool. This is a business plan tool which is designed to help build and manage the economy of the visitors (Prideaux & Witt, 2009). This tool has brought about various merits in the tourism industry such as enabling the government to predict future investment opportunities, tracking the utilization of the government resources in the industry to ensure that it is done economically and identifying areas which are in greater need of collaboration within the tourism industry.
4. The Australian government has minimized some disproportionate regulatory policies in order to attract investment in the tourism industry. The government has minimized compliance costs which are part of the requirements for new investors planning to venture the tourism industry. This has attracted more investors in the industry as the initial capital of investment in the industry is minimized.

• Improvement of tourism transport environment

The number of tourists in Australia has been increasing each year. Tourists within Australia need to travel comfortably around the country and enjoy themselves as they wish. The government of Australia has been working hand in hand with the operators in the tourism industry to ensure sufficient supply of transport facilities and improved infrastructure as demand increases in the tourism industry (Whitford & Ruhanen, 2010).  The government of Australia has seen the success of this reform by undertaking the following actions:

1. The government of Australia has negotiated for affordable air services as demand in the tourism industry increases. The government has gone a set further to subsidize the air transport sector. It has also provided an enabling business environment for the air transport sector to thrive in. This has highly attracted more tourists to Australia hence increasing profitability in the industry.
2. The government of Australia has improved the infrastructure within the country. New routes have been identified to ease congestion on roads. More airports have also been put in place to ease the air transport sector. This has seen Australia sustain the increased demand of tourists in the industry.
3. The government has encouraged the operators in the tourism industry to use the air transport system for their tourists’ movement. Through this, the government has been able to minimum traffic jams significantly as tourists can easily travel around the country by use of affordable air transport.
4. Labor supply reforms

The tourism industry of Australia has been facing the shortage of both skilled and unskilled labor supply for the past years. This has led to poor service to tourists as only a few employees are available to serve them adequately (Jenkins, 2011). During the years 2014 and 2015, there was shortage of employees in the industry. More than 50, 000 employees’ vacancy was available during the year 2015. More employees are required to fill this gap and offer quality services to all tourists and attract more visitors. The government of Australia has been working hand in hand with the operators in the industry to support recruitment of enough employees in the industry and retain the available staff. The government is also encouraging relevant quality education and proper training to equip the employees with relevant skills required in the industry.

Tourism is a very crucial industry in Australia. It contributes much towards the overall growth of the economy of Australia. The contribution of every industry towards the economic growth is measured by its productivity. However, this is not the case with tourism since its contribution to the overall growth of the economy is measured by the expenditure on consumption (Williams & Hall, 2010). It is determined by both the consumption of the residents and the visitors in the industry. Demand in the tourism industry of Australia has increased over the past years hence improving its contribution to the overall economic growth which is measured in terms of the Australian’s Gross Domestic Product. The various enterprises within the tourism industry which support the tourist’s economy ranging from accommodation, transport and other leisure activities contribute much towards the economic growth of Australia.

During the year 2009, the total output of the tourism industry was more than $30 billion. This accounted for about 2.5% of the gross domestic product of Australia. This was a decline in the productivity since for the past years especially during the Sydney Olympics, tourism industry accounted for more than 3.3% of the Australian gross domestic product. The increased demand in the tourism industry has made the contribution of the industry to increase for the past years since the year 2009.  During the year 2014, the total output of the tourism industry to the gross domestic product rose to 3% and about a third of this ($12 billion) was from international visitors. The demand for the international tourism has risen for the past years due to foreign incomes from the households, affordable cost of traveling and relatively cheap cost of tourism in Australia (Hall, Sharples, Cambourne & Macionis, 2009).

Tourism industry of Australia has highly improved the exports for the country. This has enabled Australia to have favorable terms of trade compared to other countries. During the year 2014 the tourism share on the exports was more than 59 percent due to increased demand in the international tourism. Exports have been improving from this increased international demand and the same trend is expected in future (Prideaux, 2013).

Tourism industry has reduced unemployment in Australia by a greater percentage. During the year 2009, the tourism industry in Australia had employed more than 500, 000 employees which was more than 4 percent of the Australia’s total employment. It has continued to employ more people since then and during the year 2015, it required more than 50, 000 employees in order to improve its services. This has contributed much towards minimizing unemployment in Australia. To conclude, the tourism industry in Australia has positively contributed towards economic growth for the past 10 years and it promises a bright future.

Conclusion

Australia is among the top five richest countries in Asia-Pacific region. Since the great recession of 2008, the economy of Australia has been undergoing expansion and is free. The economic prosperity of Australia has made it the centre of attraction for investors both internally and externally (Gruen, 2014). Australian economy is anticipated to post positive results in future.

The tourism industry is an important component of the economy of Australia. It contributes much towards the economic growth of Australia which is actually measured as the gross domestic product. The tourism industry in Australia has been increasing for the past ten years but at a slow pace. There have been a number of reforms by the Australian government aimed at improving the tourism industry and ensure that it remains competitive internationally. These include the building of digital capability, encouragement of investment in the tourism industry and implementation of the regulatory agenda, improvement of the transport environment and labor supply reforms (Anderson, 2016). The government has achieved much by use of these reforms for the past 10 years and is still doing its best to continue improving the tourism industry.

The tourism industry has positively impacted the Australian economy through its various enterprises which support the economy of the visitors through accommodation, transport and other leisure activities. Increase in international demand has led to increase in Australian exports. The industry has employed many employees for the past ten years which has greatly reduced the unemployment rate in Australia. In conclusion, the tourism industry in Australia has been doing great and has contributed much towards the Australian economic prosperity. The industry is anticipated to much better in future.

References

Anderson, B. A. (2016). Crisis management in the Australian tourism industry: Preparedness, personnel and postscript. Tourism Management, 27(6), 1290-1297.

Butlin, N. G. (2013). Investment in Australian economic development, 1861-1900. Cambridge University Press.

Crouch, G. I., & Ritchie, J. B. (2009). Tourism, competitiveness, and societal prosperity. Journal of business research, 44(3), 137-152.

Gruen, F. H. (2014). Australian Economic Growth. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Hall, C. M., Sharples, L., Cambourne, B., & Macionis, N. (2009). Wine tourism around the world. Routledge.

Jenkins, J. (2011). The dynamics of regional tourism organisations in New South Wales, Australia: History, structures and operations. Current Issues in Tourism, 3(3), 175-203.

Leiper, N. (2015). The framework of tourism: Towards a definition of tourism, tourist, and the tourist industry. Annals of tourism research, 6(4), 390-407.

Michael, E. J. (2013). Tourism micro-clusters. Tourism Economics, 9(2), 133-145.

Moore, S., & Carter, B. (2014). Ecotourism in the 21st century. Tourism Management, 14(2), 123-130.

Prideaux, B. (2013). Tourism perspectives of the Asian financial crisis: Lessons for the future. Current issues in Tourism, 2(4), 279-293.

Prideaux, B., & Witt, S. F. (2009). The impact of the Asian financial crisis on Australian tourism. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 5(1), 1-7.

Whitford, M. M., & Ruhanen, L. M. (2010). Australian indigenous tourism policy: practical and sustainable policies?. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 18(4), 475-496.

Williams, A. M., & Hall, C. M. (2010). Tourism and migration: new relationships between production and consumption. Tourism geographies, 2(1), 5-27.