Asia Times: Why Asian tourists give thumbs down to Down Under



	January 26, 1999	atimes.com

Oceania

Why Asian tourists give thumbs down to Down Under
By Sonny Inbaraj

DARWIN - Asia's economic crisis hasindeed caused Asian tourists to shy away from Australia, but criticssay the country's insensitive visa rules and ill-designedpromotions are not helping ease the tourism industry's woes.

Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics thisweek revealed the blow the tourism industry has suffered from theregional crisis: The country has lost estimated tourist earnings ofU.S.$426.3 million.

This occurred despite increased business from the United Statesand Europe last year. Likewise, the bureau said overall touristarrivals had fallen by 4.2 percent in the 11 months to Novemberlast year.

Malaysia and Indonesia, the bureau said, had the largestdeclines of the top 10 source countries with falls of 23 percentand 45 percent respectively.

The bureau figures also indicated that last year there was a 7percent fall in visitor numbers from recession-hit Japan, thecountry with the largest source of tourists to Australia.

But beyond the expected effects that come with shrinkingincomes among Asians, some Australian officials and travel agentssay part of the tourism slowdown should be blamed on Australiaitself.

The Tourism Task Force chief executive, Christopher Brown,blamed the Department of Immigration for scaring away Asianvisitors and said the bureaucracy was ''insulting'' them.

''The Tourism Forecasting Council fearlessly predicted that1998 would see a 24 percent growth in tourists from China -potentially the world's largest tourism market. A year later wefind a 13 percent drop,'' he pointed out.

''While there may be a number of reasons for that drop, theimposition by Immigration of the insulting $A50visa fee (U.S.$32) and its even more insultingapplication form, cannot have helped,'' he said.

The Immigration Department says the visa fee and the claimed''insulting'' application form were necessary to screen visitorswanting to enter Australia.

Acting Secretary of Immigration Mark Sullivan said gangs inChina, the Middle East and Asia were trafficking in falsedocuments, and then advising travelers to pose as refugees onarrival.

''We think we are dampening the trend. Getting to Australia isbeing made more difficult,'' said Sullivan.

But tour operators here warn that the Immigration Department isfailing to see the forest from the trees. ''These policies willjust put off bona fide Asian tourists,'' said a Darwin travelagent.

''Australia has already got a bad name in Vietnam forattempting to refuse entry to the country's best puppeteer troupeto perform at the Sydney Festival at the start of the year. Do wewant to tarnish that image further?'' he asked.

He was referring to the Australian government's denial of visasfor the Thang Long Water Puppeteers, when they lodged theirapplications last year to perform at the Sydney Festival inJanuary.

The Sydney Festival committee then lashed out publicly atImmigration Minister Philip Ruddock, saying such an action wouldbe perceived very badly in Asia.

Because of strong public pressure and the Sydney Festivaltaking their case to the media, the minister recanted his earlierstatement that some of the puppeteers ''were not part of alegitimate troupe''. The Thang Long troupe were then issuedvisas, much to the delight of its fans in Sydney.

One bright spot for the Australian tourism industry, accordingto the Australian Bureau of Statistics, was a jump in British andAmerican tourists, up 13 percent compared with the same time lastyear.

The Australian Tourist Commission's managing director, JohnMorse, says overall tourist arrivals were a better-than-expectedresult given the economic pressures in the region.

But travel agents in the Northern Territory's capital Darwinare not pleased with the industry's overall performance. Theyclaim the increased British and American tourist arrivals werejust confined to Sydney and Melbourne, and not to the whole ofAustralia.

Darwin, three hours away by air from Kuala Lumpur and a hopaway from Indonesia and Singapore, depends on the Asian tourismmarket.

Travel agents here say the Tourism Commission is doing more harmthan good in Asia through its promotions.

Asad Mohsin, a hospitality management lecturer at the NorthernTerritory University, reckons Darwin and the Territory are missingout on millions of dollars and millions of tourists because theTourism Commission is promoting the wrong image.

''Images of snarling crocs (crocodiles) and Croc Dundee look-alikes thrashing through the bush is certainly not the image wewant to promote in Asia,'' he said.

He also believes the latest Tourism Commission advertisementsfeaturing busty, bikini-clad blondes will be a turn-off,especially in Muslim countries.

Moshin said a vast number of middle-class Malaysians andIndonesians would be interested in Darwin if it was promoted as asophisticated city rather than the gateway to the ''jungle''.

He said more than four million ''ordinary'' Malaysians - most ofthem families - took a holiday of 10 to 12 days duration once ayear, every year. ''And that vast majority went mostly toThailand, even though there was not much different or new tosee,'' he said.

Moshin said the Northern Territory at the moment attracts only0.1 percent of the potential tourist market in Malaysia. ''Here weare just three hours away by air with a whole new Australian-Asian culture and countryside - and hardly anyone knows aboutus."

(Inter Press Service)