Reports in today’s SMH suggest that Tourism Minister Fran Bailey has succesfully lobbied to maintain Tourism Australia as a seperate entity and not have it swallowed up into the public service bureacracy as feared by many.
Ms Bailey will today announce that Tourism Australia’s nine-person board, which is made up mostly of tourism operators and experts, will be strengthened. It will be given tougher governance and accountability responsibilities and directors will be subjected to performance reviews. Board members will continue to be appointed by the government.
Sources said Ms Bailey, who briefed industry leaders yesterday, also revealed that the government representative, the secretary of the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources, Mark Patterson, would no longer sit on the board.
