According to PhoCusWright.com, Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) will have 23% growth by the end of 2009 whilst other destinations, such as America, will be down by 2%. The PhoCusWright article outlines some of the more unique aspects of Australia and New Zealand as a destination, such as 90% internet penetration and a strong corporate market, but I would like to talk specifics and hopefully figure out why we have done better than everyone else in a time of finical crisis.
Unlike America, Australia is surrounded by developing markets like China and India which essentially shielded Australia from the start of the GFC. This extra lead time allowed the travel industry to plan for disaster in ways that America could not, such as airlines merging or removing routes, delaying expansion of accommodation and ceasing recruitment industry wide. Without the element of surprise, the GFC’s bite wasn’t nearly as bad.
Secondly and still debated, the Australian government decided to release a stimulus package to the general public which basically consisted of 900 AUD for everyone, no matter what their level of income. I have yet to see a study on this and if anyone has please met know, but this did no end of good for the travel industry. Couples had an extra 1800 AUD to spend as they pleased, families even more. With everyone working so hard to keep their jobs, a holiday was the perfect thing to spend it on, thank you Kevin Rudd!
From an outbound point of view, Australia has a huge advantage geographically that, interestingly, works against it as an inbound destination. Being so close to Asia provides cheap holiday destinations close to our own backyards, (Bali, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Bangkok etc.,). I can guarantee South East Asia benefitted from the stimulus package almost as much as Australia did, as did the low cost airlines that flew there like Jetstar and Virgin Blue (See Virgin Blue press release here)
A lot of Australia and New Zealand’s successes had to do with its location and I will admit I was being a bit bold with the title of this post, but I think Australia has really shown what it’s made of in this tough time. We’ve capitalized where we could, minimized damages where we couldn’t and came out on top despite all the naysayers. Makes me proud to (Soon) be an Australian!
http://projectwander.com/2009/11/11/the-australian-governments-travel-blunder-roundup/ The Australian Governments travel blunder roundup | Project:Wander
[...] and support local businesses, not to mention tourism is one of few industries that actually improved this year. I am shocked that a region benefitting from tourism would take such a narrow minded approach to an [...]
Why Australia is better at travel than you
Unlike America, Australia is surrounded by developing markets like China and India which essentially shielded Australia from the start of the GFC. This extra lead time allowed the travel industry to plan for disaster in ways that America could not, such as airlines merging or removing routes, delaying expansion of accommodation and ceasing recruitment industry wide. Without the element of surprise, the GFC’s bite wasn’t nearly as bad.
Secondly and still debated, the Australian government decided to release a stimulus package to the general public which basically consisted of 900 AUD for everyone, no matter what their level of income. I have yet to see a study on this and if anyone has please met know, but this did no end of good for the travel industry. Couples had an extra 1800 AUD to spend as they pleased, families even more. With everyone working so hard to keep their jobs, a holiday was the perfect thing to spend it on, thank you Kevin Rudd!
From an outbound point of view, Australia has a huge advantage geographically that, interestingly, works against it as an inbound destination. Being so close to Asia provides cheap holiday destinations close to our own backyards, (Bali, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Bangkok etc.,). I can guarantee South East Asia benefitted from the stimulus package almost as much as Australia did, as did the low cost airlines that flew there like Jetstar and Virgin Blue (See Virgin Blue press release here)
A lot of Australia and New Zealand’s successes had to do with its location and I will admit I was being a bit bold with the title of this post, but I think Australia has really shown what it’s made of in this tough time. We’ve capitalized where we could, minimized damages where we couldn’t and came out on top despite all the naysayers. Makes me proud to (Soon) be an Australian!