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Spend your time at home, says Minister
Australians need to spend more time holidaying at home, according to the Federal Tourism Minister.
Fran Bailey made the call in response to the latest National Visitor Survey figures showing the number of domestic trips taken by Australians declined by six percent in 2005.
This is on top of recent ABS statistics that showed the number of Australians travelling overseas increased by nine percent in 2005.
“This means fewer Australians are discovering the delights of a holiday in their own backyard,” Ms Bailey said.
“I would encourage Australians contemplating a holiday overseas to have a second think about a holiday at home. There are so many great places to visit in Australia.”
“Every Australian who holidays at home helps the local economy and creates more jobs for Australians, a win-win situation all round.”
Ms Bailey also called on State Governments to invest more money into promoting their own regions.
“State governments should not walk away from their primary tourism responsibility – promoting their own state to Australians,” she said.
“With state budget season fast approaching, it is time for state governments to face up to their responsibility and invest now to promote the best their state has to offer.”
Opposition tourism spokesman Martin Ferguson said the figures confirmed the “parlous” state of domestic tourism, which accounts for about 70 per cent of the industry.
He said spending by domestic tourists had been stagnant since 1998.
In the past three years, the continuing decline has translated in a $157 million loss in tourism expenditure.
Mr Ferguson called on Tourism Minister Fran Bailey to tell the industry how the $45 million allocated for domestic tourism has been spent.
“Clearly, this is an unsustainable situation for the tourism industry, which has been hit by higher petrol prices, record household debt, competition from white goods, untaken leave and, now, Cyclone Larry,” Mr Ferguson said.
“Under the tourism white paper, $45 million was allocated to Tourism Australia for domestic tourism, some of which was used for a domestic advertising campaign.
“But the industry is rightly asking, as the minister should be, where did the rest of the money go?”
Graham Muldoon
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