The Mole speaks with John O’Neill – CEO and General Manager Tourism New South Wales and Ron Rosalky, Chairman Tourism Industry Council New South Wales – separately

At ATE 2006 John O’Neill , CEO and GM of Tourism New South Wales said that Tourism New South Wales would always take ATE seriously and this time had taken a very significant space along with their partners and suppliers, but he als took the time to say that TNSW funding had not been cut, in contrast to comments made by Tourism Industry Council NSW Chair Ron Rosalky – read on as The Mole investigates!

Mr O’Neill said, “We have a deep commitment to Tourism Australia’s promoted themes for nature, etc and we also have some new product here including Priscilla Queen of the Desert, the New Bridgeclimb product, the fabulous new Emirates Resorts property at Wolgan Valley in the Blue Mountains and Sydney wildlife world, aligning this great array of product on our State with the Tourism Australia themes.”  

“Our focus in NSW will remain on the USA, UK NZ and Japan markets, with the addition of Singapore, which is also a good hub to India.”

“Korea is also surprisingly strong and growing rapidly and we are working very vigorously on the Japanese market, doing what we can to support a mature market which has been in decline and to do this we are working with the Gold Coast which has also suffered.”

“Tourism Australia and Tourism New South Wales’ roles are well aligned, with Tourism Australia’s primary role to talk to consumers in any market and ours to work very closely with TA and the trade”.  “For example, to assist with the Japanese decline, we have a staff member in our Sydney office to connect Japan operators in Sydney with product so that they can be packaged”. 

“We also have a Japan industry forum which has met five times over the last 18 months and what has happened in Japan is that the consumer today out of Japan is very different to previous travellers and they are looking for short haul holidays and increased competition form Korea and China.” 

“We are also working with Gold Coast regarding our shared Japan challenge through the State Tourism Office communication alliance and to be smart about a one Aus message internationally”.

“We want to approach the international market as one Australia and for example, in the UK, which is a very significant marketplace for New South Wales, we fully support the destination Australia partnership, because for NSW, UK is our number one market and New Zealand number two”.

“We are also fully supportive of the “Where the bloody hell are you” campaign, it has great content and showcases that content well in terms of images – we just hope that the results will follow.”

“In the USA, our Manager in the USA Irene is one of the most respected tourism execs in the USA and we are committed to the market”.  “We went to San Francisco on the Qantas inaugural we would like to see that service become daily but that is up to QF.” 

“We worked with Tourism Australia in G’day LA will be in Los Angeles again next year and the new G’day NY event, so trade work and supporting the consumer work that TA does is important.”   “We run Sydney style events and we will take a series of cultural ambassadors to markets, seeking to influence the trade and consumers to think about Sydney”.

“One of my priorities for the coming year is to communicate, communicate, communicate, both internally and externally, telling people about what we do, because I think we have not been good about that”.

“In terms of discussion that has taken place recently about our funding going forward, I think that Tourism Industry Council New South Wales got it wrong, although I did not see their press release”.

“What has changed is that we are now part of the Department of State and Regional Development and I report to Loftus Harris, the Director General of the Department.”  “I believe that recognises that tourism is part of the State’s economic development and that we will seek to leverage what State Development does from a development and export development perspective and to grow the tourism economy”.

“Let me make it clear to everyone that Tourism New South Wales’ budget and funding from the NSW Government has been maintained, but we did forecast a slowing of the domestic economy with the result that we would raise less coop funding, that is, the amount industry would bring to the table could be less because of a slowing of the tourism economy”.

“We are as committed as ever to tourism in New South Wales and did not lose money.”

The Mole also spoke with Chairman of the Tourism Industry Council NSW, Ron Rosalky, who disagrees strongly with Mr O’Neill saying, “While the NSW Government’s funding for TNSW may not appear to have been cut substantially this year, they have clearly failed to keep pace”.

He added, “The facts speak for themselves, with the tourism performance trend for New South Wales continuing to go south as a result of less real spending in New South Wales, which is also exacerbated by the fact that every other State and Territory has had massive increases.” 

“It is simple, other States’ spend goes up and even if NSW’s had stayed the same, which it is has not for the last four years, it effectively goes down irrespective!”

Mr Rosalky said, “John O’Neill argues that they have not had a cut in spending, when what he should be doing is bemoaning that TNSW has failed to secure from the NSW Government the significant additional funding it should have had and the other States and Territories are having from their Governments, in effect also confirming that NSW is being left behind.”

Mr Rosalky added, “It is patently clear that significantly more money needs to be spent in New South Wales by the New South Wales Government to claw back some of the lost ground to other States and Territories, who are forging ahead”. 

“It is also absolutely clear and cannot be disputed, that over the last four years from 2002/3 through to 2006, tourism funding by the NSW Government in NSW has decreased by $4m”.

“When is the NSW Government going to recognise that tourism is an industry that makes a 4.5% contribution to the State’s Gross State Product yet it does not receive Government funding commensurate with that contribution?”

“Tourism is an extremely important industry and however John O’Neill says it, the industry in New South Wales is getting short shrift and outgunned by the other States and Territories, with the net additional effect that New South Wales is not getting the required private sector investment, which the other States are”.  “We know that this is the case, because we are the industry”.

“The Tourism Industry Council New South Wales’ purpose in speaking out is to alert people to the fact that tourism in NSW is an industry that is not being looked after and is being very badly let down by the State Government in New South Wales, which is reflected in our very poor domestic and also now international performance.”

“I urge Mr O’Neill to realise that now is not the time for politics, but for securing immediate, urgent and realistic NSW State Government funding, otherwise NSW will continue to fall behind.”

Federal Mister Fran Bailey supported the NSW Government’s lack of funding in her comments last week at ATE 2006, when she said, “There are sadly though two Governments who are not stepping up to the plate and demonstrating their commitment and that is not because the tourism organisations are not working with us, but it is more to do with those State and Territory Governments”.

“Of course I am speaking about the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales, which have not shown the commitment to tourism that other States and Territories have shown”.

“New South Wales sadly is unbelievably arrogant at a Government level, because they think that they do not have to do anything because they have Sydney and its icons and that does the job for them”.

“I have been everywhere in NSW and all the regional tourism organisations in New South Wales are giving me the same message, they are simply not getting the dollars and support from the NSW Government to market their regions effectively.”

Ms Bailey added, “When I was in Dubbo recently the people at Western Plains Zoo told me that they are down 25% on the same month last year and I did not hear anything that told me that the NSW Government was doing anything to help”.

Ms Bailey said, “Unless NSW begins to show a serious commitment to tourism, international visitors will be arriving in the international terminal in Sydney, going across to domestic and travelling and dispersing to other parts of Australia, which are investing well in tourism marketing and are and will accordingly reap the rewards.”

In closing The Mole was give an example at ATE of one interesting effect of the apparent funding crisis in TNSW, in that it appears that the implementation of TNSW’s excellent and recently launched Aboriginal Tourism Product Manual will be badly affected because the funding for Tourism New South Wales’ Aboriginal and Indigenous tourism section has been slashed to only $10,000!

Report by The Mole