To: Tony Mayell
CEO Tourism Tasmania
Hobart
Dear Tony,
It was pleasure to meet you a week or so ago and to discuss the future of tourism in Tasmania. It’s a subject close to my heart, not only because I believe this island state has an almost limitless potential for developing this industry but also because I can’t bear wasted opportunities.
We recently had the dispiriting news that tourism in Tasmania had declined over the past year.
There are a number of reasons for this uncomfortable state of affairs. First and foremost there is ruthless competition for the travel dollar. Deals abound and the consumer has never had such an abundance of choice. I recently interviewed Andrew McEvoy, the CEO of the peak national travel body, Tourism Australia, and he madethe point that countries that rarely if ever advertised their attractions are now spending a fortune doing so. He told me that there are now one hundred and eight nine national tourist agencies operating out of the UK alone.
Decisions about destination and time, once clear-cut, have become the subject of extensive online personal research. Millions visit sites such as Trip Advisor and Wotif. Less proactive travellers can simply sit and wait for the offers to come to them, e-messages that arrive almost daily with details of fire sale prices and special offers on travel packages and flights. So as more and more potential travellers take to surfing the internet and playing travel agent, the industry faces even more challenges that usual. Gerry Harvey complains about burgeoning consumer preference for Internet shopping undermining traditional retailers and that same phenomenon is also upsetting the travel apple cart.
This switch of allegiance has much to do with a thirst for choice (we know that Australians are adventurous travellers always on the lookout for new experiences) but it has more to do with cost. Savvy travellers are also comparative shoppers. They know that for not much more than the price of a week in Tasmania they can have a holiday in Fiji or Bali or New Zealand. As an old marketing man I can tell you there is no sales pitch more potent than a SALE ad, but that doesn’t mean that a consumer won’t occasionally dig deep for a purchase with appeal beyond price.
It needs to be acknowledged as well that destinations are as subject to fashion as hemlines. Today’s ‘must see’ is tomorrow’s ‘been there done that.’ Tasmania is lucky in that there are still many, many people in Australia who have never visited the place and infinitely more potential customers in the world beyond. Which brings one to the question of the product. Tasmania’s natural allure is evident. Many prospective visitors will be persuaded by the seductive images that fill the screen in Tourism Tasmania’s latest cinema commercial. It’s beautiful. Sitting there in the dark, looking at the perfect shot of a jaw-droppingly beautiful Wineglass Bay or an ancient, silent forest one can almost hear the audience’s collective intake of breath. Wow factor plus. But there needs to be something beyond natural beauty on offer.
Now the most frequently asked question, or FAQ to the acronym-addict, asked of friends returning from a holiday than “Where did you eat?” It’s all very well being gob-smacked by some natural wonder but after you’ve been moved by the splendour of the Cathedral at Rheims you’ll be looking for some quaint little bistro in which to have lunch.
Tony, one of you predecessors got one thing very wrong. He positioned Tasmania as a budget destination rather than an aspirational one. But subsequently he made a controversial comment on the level of service in Tasmania and in this regard he was right on the money. Our service area is pretty dire. One doesn’t want slick, insincere, tip-courting, have a nice day American service, nor Brit service that oscillates between forelock-tugging and class-stricken haughtiness, nor the fawning servility encountered throughout Asia, but relaxed Aussie warmth, but that approach needs to be underpinned by professionalism. Training for the hospitality industry is not your responsibility but you will need to stress its importance to your political masters. Tell ‘em that a few decades a campaign to persuade this sector in France to desist from their haughty traditional ways and make the country seem more welcome to visitors worked a treat and the French, while never quite embracing affability, have nonetheless made the visitor feel more welcome.
Tony, if there’s one word that I respectfully suggest you make your mantra in the coming years it’s UNIQUE. Tourism Tasmania needs to focus on the unique aspects of this state, on those experiences available nowhere else in the country or the region. The Minister, green in years and experience, needs to support you. You know more than he does about your industry. He should be encouraged to learn about international best practice in the industry, to push for changes beyond the cosmetic.
I write this while halfway through an assignment in Germany. Along with several other journalists I am travelling from region to region as guest of the German Government and I can’t help but observe the way each stresses its particular attractions. Some of their representatives talk culture, others history. We have toured castles, visited vineyards, dined at trendy upmarket restaurants in Berlin and student stubenin Heidelberg, tasted wine in former WWII bomb shelters, brought bratwurst fromstreet vendors and sugar cakes from bakeries established a century and a half ago, attended the opera and rollicked to an oompah band in a Bavarian-style beer hall. The diversity of attractions and personalities is dizzying. And all the while I keep thinking of Tasmania. Our offering to the visitor needs to be extended and delivery must rise beyond the sub-optimal. Food, culture, history and heritage need to be added to natural beauty as the state’s unique selling points. And we need to create events that are – here’s that word again – unique and particular to place. Oktoberfest, underway right now, attracts six million visitors to Munich. Oh for even a tiny percentage of that crowd.
Tony, you did a great job in the Northern Territory. Tassie is a bigger challenge.
Cheers and good luck,
Leo Schofield
• The Guardian: Tess Shellard won a trip to Tasmania, and survived meetings with wallabies and a tiger snake on a trek through the rainforest
Our adventure began in Tasmania’s capital, Hobart. From what the locals told us there was only one place to start: we had to see MONA, the deeply eccentric Museum of Old and New Art (mona.net.au).
