Queensland’s tourism industry may recover faster than expected, says a tourism academic.
Associate Professor Noel Scott, from the University of Queensland’s school of tourism, quoted by The Age, says the example of Thailand after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami suggests the fallout won’t be too long lived.
One of his PhD students studied the tourism recovery in Thailand, with encouraging results.
“There was quite a lot of physical infrastructure gone in Thailand, but it was surprising how robust the tourism industry was,” he said.
“What they found, for example, in Thailand was that properly managed, people will come back quite quickly.”
Dr Scott says Thai authorities efficiently spread the message that the best way people could help was to continue to holiday there, and Queensland must do the same.
“It will bounce back. How long that takes will depend on the messages going out from bodies such as Tourism Queensland and Tourism Australia.”
