BULLETIN. Report Number 1

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1 T O U R II S M II N D U S T R Y WORKING GROUP Industry Feedback Hotline Toll Free: Fax: (02) tiwg@isr.gov.au 19 September 2001 BULLETIN Report Number 1 The Prime Minister s Tourism Working Group met in Sydney today to discuss key issues confronting the tourism industry in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks and the collapse of Ansett Airlines. Co-chaired by Federal Tourism Minister Jackie Kelly and Australian Tourism Export Council Chairman Andrew Burnes, the Working Group has been established to assess the impact of recent events. The Group will work with governments to provide practical solutions and assist the industry to maintain demand and help meet the challenges caused by the significant downturn in bookings. The Working Group has identified five immediate issues to be addressed and set in place a process to gather information from around Australia of the impact on the domestic leisure sector, the corporate travel sector including meetings and conventions, the inbound leisure sector and the retail distribution sector. Working to a reporting date of 12th October, the Working Group will make a swift analysis of the situation and make a series of recommendations for the Prime Ministers immediate consideration. The Working Group will have at its disposal the full range of Federal and State Government policy options available in order to address the very real and serious difficulties being faced by all sectors of the tourism industry across the nation Tourism Minister Jackie Kelly said. Obviously governments can t write open cheques for industry assistance but we ll do everything we can to help over the coming months said the Minister. The Working Group noted the significant progress being made to restore air capacity to many routes throughout Australia. Key issues identified by the Working Group at present are: Restoration of domestic air capacity as soon as possible and the reintroduction of discounted airfares on main trunk, leisure and regional routes for both the domestic and inbound markets; Maintenance of confidence and demand through targeting markets, both domestic and international, where Australia has a competitive advantage; Addressing employment concerns amongst industry employees and cash flow issues amongst Australia s tourism businesses; Ensuring Virgin and any other potential airline entrants are given all opportunities to expand their capacities and route networks;

2 Addressing the current insurance issues facing Qantas and Virgin to ensure there is no further disruption to Australia s domestic air services. The Working Group will also pursue regional visits to as many of the worst affected areas as possible together with Minister Kelly. The Group strongly identified the importance of maintaining investor and consumer confidence in all sectors of the tourism industry through public comment. The Working Group will meet again on Tuesday to assess information currently being sourced from all sectors throughout Australia by the industry s leading representation groups and collated in Canberra through the tourism division of the Department of Industry, Science and Resources. The Minister has also committed the Department s resources and those of other relevant government departments, to assist the Working Group in developing its report and recommendations.

3 T O U R II S M II N D U S T R Y WORKING GROUP Industry Feedback Hotline Toll Free: Fax: (02) tiwg@isr.gov.au 25 September 2001 BULLETIN Report Number 2 The Prime Minister s Tourism Industry Working Group met today in Sydney to discuss the issues arising out of the Ansett collapse and terrorist attacks in the USA. Having identified some of the key issues confronting industry at present, the Committee turned its attention to implementing a range of actions relating to surveying the industry throughout Australia and analyzing the resulting information prior to putting forward its recommendations to the PM on 12 th October. Issues discussed included: the latest market intelligence from participants; the need for any survey to be nationally representative and comprehensive; the need for the economic analysis and survey to provide information by both sector and region and not just the broad economic aggregates. developing an acceptable framework to collate suggestions and recommendations from industry The Committee made a number of decisions including: Most parties have been willing to provide their databases to the Department of Industry Science and Resources ( ISR ) and ISR has committed to establishing a comprehensive industry wide database by Thursday 27 September. The Committee resolved to utilize this database for the distribution of the industry wide survey later this week. Econtech, headed by Chris Murphy, has been selected by the Committee to undertake the economic impact analysis on behalf of the Committee; A technical sub-committee consisting of Stephen Albin (TTF), Daniel Gschwind (QTIC), Melissa Loncar (ATC) and ISR has been appointed to work with Econtech to develop the industry wide questionnaire, which is due for consideration by the committee on Thursday afternoon. The survey will be distributed by the ATC on Friday 28 th September to industry using ISR s data base, with the ATC utilizing their on line software for compilation of the results. This will also be supplemented by a telephone survey of operators without contacts in regional Australia; The survey outcomes will be delivered to Econtech and the Committee by the ATC on Friday 5 th October and Econtech will have until Monday 8 th October to deliver its analysis report. In addition to the industry survey, See Australia will conduct a consumer sentiment survey and report back to the industry on this next week.

4 Graeme Perry and ISR will develop a pro-forma for industry organisations to bring forward collated options/strategies to ISR for assessment by the Group; As previously discussed, industry groups are informing their memberships and constituents of the survey and urging all participants to return the information requested as soon as possible and in any event no later than Thursday 4 th October. Regional Consultations The Group is currently working on conducting a series of industry consultations next week in some of Australia s key leisure destinations and further details will be announced later this week. The Group will meet again in Sydney on Friday to finalize the survey content and begin considering possible recommendations based on a range of probable scenarios. The Group has made tremendous progress in only a few days addressing the task confronting it and the Government is very appreciative of the responsiveness across the entire industry to this situation said Federal Tourism Minister Jackie Kelly. The PM and I are committed to this process and we look forward to consulting with industry both through the survey and in direct discussions to ensure we deliver the right outcomes for Australia s tourism industry said the Minister.

5 T O U R II S M II N D U S T R Y WORKING GROUP Industry Feedback Hotline Toll Free: Fax: (02) tiwg@isr.gov.au 28 September 2001 BULLETIN Report Number 3 The Prime Minister s Tourism Industry Working Group today commenced a survey of more than 20,000 tourism and tourism related businesses to ascertain the impact on them of the Ansett collapse and terrorist attacks in the USA. At its meeting on 25 September 2001, the Group agreed to the need for a nationally representative and comprehensive survey of the industry to give it a solid base of information on the impact on individual business in the industry of the Ansett collapse and the US terrorist attacks. The survey will be undertaken by two main means: an on-line survey of around 18,000 organisations; and a telephone survey of some 2,000 businesses not covered by the on-line survey. The Australian Tourist Commission is conducting the on-line survey, which will cover a wide range of businesses right across the industry which have access to . The Department of Industry, Sciences and Resources is managing the telephone survey and has engaged Millward Brown to conduct the survey on the Group s behalf. This survey will have an emphasis on rural and regional businesses but will also be representative of the tourism industry as a whole. Both of these surveys commenced today and the Group has asked for a report of their findings by 5 October The Group encourages all 20,000 organistaions who are ed a survey form by the ATC or who are asked to participate in the telephone survey to take a few minutes out to respond. All information is needed to get a full picture of how the industry is managing. Econtec, the firm headed by Chris Murphy, is well underway on the economic impact analysis, which is being undertaken on behalf of the Group. The findings of the on-line and telephone surveys will be used by Econtec to assist them to assess the economic impact on tourism of these recent developments.

6 Way Forward on Options The Group is now focussed on formulating recommendations for consideration by the Prime Minister. The Group will be using the results of all of these surveys, together with the information received during the series of regional consultations next week, as the basis of its report to the Prime Minister. The Group is also delighted with the number of suggestions being forwarded to it by members of the industry. The Group will meet again in Sydney on Tuesday to discuss draft recommendations. Industry groups and members of the industry are encouraged to keep on sending their suggestions to the Group, either through the feedback hotline or the Group s special address at the top of this Bulletin.

7 T O U R II S M II N D U S T R Y WORKING GROUP Industry Feedback Hotline Toll Free: Fax: (02) tiwg@isr.gov.au 4 October 2001 BULLETIN Report Number 4 The Tourism Industry Working Group have commenced an intensive round of regional tourism consultations, which began in Queensland on 3 October 2001 and continued in the Northern Territory and Western Australia on the 4 October Further destinations include South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. The visits are being targeted at regional Australia, where 60% of Australia s domestic tourism dollars are spent annually. The Co-Chair of the TIWG, Andrew Burnes, who is also Chairman of the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC), Richard Mulcahy from the Australian Hotels Association, Peter Shelley, also from ATEC, Daniel Gschwind from the Queensland Tourism Industry Corporation and Dennis Winchester from the Hotel Motel and Accommodation Alliance are accompanying the Federal Minister for Tourism, Ms Jackie Kelly, MP on these consultations. Gold Coast The group arrived in Coolangatta for a 9am meeting, held at the Calypso Plaza. The organising group was the Gold Coast Tourism Bureau who put the meeting together under a tight deadline. The meeting was well organised by the Bureau and as a result was well attended by the industry. Those in attendance gave the group positive feedback on the current program of the Tourism Industry Working Group, and were pleased that regional tourism issues were receiving such timely attention. Gold Coast operators reiterated concerns over airline capacity. The limited capacity had particular impact on the convention market as the capacity could not accommodate the numbers needed for viable conventions. A local survey on the Gold Coast indicated a 50% drop in business, although the impacts were uneven across businesses. Some businesses were being very hard hit, for example, those dealing in the Japan market. Forward hotel bookings were down in the four and five star category; the convention and incentive sector and the Japan market. The food and beverage sector had been hit immediately, with consequent impacts on employment. Several operators emphasised the need for immediate focus on saving jobs and assisting operators. About one third to a half of people present have experienced losses because of unpaid debts involving the Ansett group. This was the same for Townsville and Cairns. There were several suggestions for assistance. The following are some highlights of the many ideas put forward. The TIWG will work through all the proposals in formulating its recommendations to the government. The need for coordination of local marketing initiatives important, especially integration of local regional programs of auto associations e.g. NRMA. The need for access to cash-flow business relief (repeated strongly in all meetings)

8 Assistance in staff retention programs to avoid loss of skill base. Increasing capacity through flexibility for Qantas and Virgin The loss of Kansai (Osaka) services needs to be addressed. The need to engage airline decisionmakers overseas and increase the activity in the Japan market was raised. It was reported that JAL is considering more flights. Investigate tax relief options recognising that these are mainly State responsibilities. Townsville Leaving Coolangatta at 11.45am, the group arrived in Townsville for a 2pm meeting. The meeting was held at Jupiters, Townsville and was organised by Townsville Enterprise. Richard Power reported that the meeting was well attended by local industry representatives and that it was reassuring to see that the Minister was taking regional tourism so seriously. In Townsville, operators reported a drop in airline capacity of 45%. Conferences have been deferred or cancelled. Those going ahead had reduced attendance. Lack of adequate air capacity was repeated as the major issue. The ability of the TCF to meet consumer claims would mean travellers would re-book. Some did not see marketing as a sufficiently quick fix. Townsville was especially reliant on government, business and convention travel. Further issues include: More funding for ATC regions not just the hot spots ; See Australia (especially on areas not focussed on to-date; and QLDs Make time program ). See Australia brand is too generic Government could assist us with marketing to put the images/brand specific to our regions needs. Tax rebate for suppliers useful, although problem is that it does not help the cash flow problem now. We need assistance with the construction of a cruise terminal. Cairns The group left Townsville at 4.45pm and arrived in Cairns for a 6pm meeting at the Holiday Inn, Cairns. The meeting was organised by Tourism Tropical North Queensland. Meeting coordinator, Ian Kean, reported that attendance was high and that the local industry was appreciative of the opportunity to air their concerns. They were also pleased that the Minister and other industry leaders had taken time, in what was obviously a busy schedule, to meet with them. The Minister said she was pleased to be given the opportunity to speak to the local industry as Tropical North Queensland was a major tourism destination. Tour operators were reported as having anywhere from a 10% to 75% drop in revenue. While some international arrivals were holding up, this was likely a short term phenomenon reflecting paid-for bookings (cancellations would have resulted in loss on payment). Cancellations are becoming evident for the forthcoming periods. There have also been some new bookings. The inability of travel to other destinations, especially the triangle of Cairns-Alice/Uluru-Sydney was a major factor in forward cancellations and drop off of bookings. Several holiday accommodation establishments reported very large losses. If they are strata titled, owner/investors, including retirees, were experiencing losses. Establishments in Port Douglas reported millions of dollars of losses in forward bookings. Further suggestions include: Suggest that the Government monitors industry debt levels. Removal/simplification of fees e.g. $5,500 for GBRMPA permit; suspend national Parks fees. Gap funding for States domestic marketing so that their resources can be freed up for international marketing. Targeted marketing e.g. backpackers, around 50% of Cairns inbound is less than thirty years old- of which surveys indicate only 9% are now scared of travelling.

9 Capacity and fares must be reintroduced for the Cairns-Sydney-Uluru triangle which has been hard hit. More insurance support and the widening of the EMDG Scheme. Support for Ansett Mark II should be linked to servicing regional routes. Reducing or eliminating FBT and/or GST on tourism to free up cash (even if temporarily).