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Ladies and Gentlemen, it is good to be here in Adelaide for the launch of the 2010 Australian Tourism Exchange.
My portfolio has me spending quite a bit of time in South Australia given the importance of mining and tourism to this State.
Today, and indeed this week, is all about tourism. There are almost half a million Australians employed in tourism. This is an industry worth $41 billion to the Australian economy. It contributes 3.6 percent to our GDP and is our largest services export.
And the really good news is - its growing.
Year to date international visitor figures are up 6 per cent on the same period last year.
We have seen strong growth in some of our key markets:
- 7 per cent growth out of China;
- 9 per cent growth out of India;
- 3 per cent out of New Zealand; and
- 15 per cent out of Korea.
We have seen a small resurgence in the Japanese market of 3% for the first time since the first quarter in 2005.
This is great news for the 30,000 small businesses in Australia who depend on this industry for their livelihood.
The Australian Tourism Exchange brings together over 1500 sellers and more than 590 buyers in the largest tourism event of its type in the Southern Hemisphere.
During the course of the coming week, you will mix plenty of opportunities for networking with over 44,000 appointments where buyers will be convinced to promote Australia's unique natural landscapes, our fine wine and excellent cuisine, our indigenous heritage, vibrant cities and regional areas.
Last year was a tough year for our industry and a test of Australia's competiveness. Global travel declined 4 percent, yet our 5.6 million international visitor arrivals were line ball with the previous year, and our tourism exports grew slightly to $25 billion. This is an outstanding result and a demonstration of the resilience of the industry.
Having said that, industry will continue to be affected by regional and global impacts.
That's why we need to focus our efforts on supply side issues and the long term sustainability of the industry as well as marketing.
South Australia has benefited from the development of Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island, The Louise in the Barossa Valley and the Port Lincoln Hotel.
The $394 million development of the Adelaide Convention Centre and Riverbank Area will provide a great boost to business, arts and cultural events and lift the general amenity and attractiveness of the city for residents and visitors alike.
We need to ensure tourism developments across Australia can compete with other developments, and that may mean State Governments planning for and assisting tourism development, in the same way they do for manufacturing facilities. In terms of employment per square metre, tourism developments offer great advantages.
Tourism stands to benefit greatly from the Government's tax reform; given 93 percent of the industry is comprised of small business.
From 2012-13 these businesses will be able to write off assets of up to $5,000 instantly and up to 720,000 companies will benefit from the reduction in the company tax rate from 30 to 28 percent.
So for the first time, this Government is working on both the supply and demand sides of tourism to ensure we continue to adapt and grow our industry to increase our productivity and competitiveness.
And this work is paying dividends.
The strength of the Chinese market cannot go unremarked. China is our largest two-way trading partner and our second largest tourism market based on visitor nights.
Last year, we had more than 350,000 Chinese visitors. This is a market worth $2.8 billion and is forecast to increase at an average annual rate of 10.2 per cent to $5.5 billion in 2017.
That is why prior to the Budget, I announced $4 million in funding over the next four years towards the extension of the Approved Destination Status Scheme to ensure Chinese group leisure travellers continue to enjoy a high quality tourism experience on our shores.
Since its introduction in 1999, the Scheme has been very successful in removing and keeping out rogue operators in the Chinese inbound tourism sector.
That is one of the reasons why the China market is continuing to grow for us.
There is nothing like happy customers to spread the word about how great the Australian tourism experience really is.
The new Australian Government and Tourism Australia tourism marketing campaign - "There's Nothing Like Australia" - has already in its first phase been highly successful in spreading the word. More than 30,000 images and stories have been uploaded to the campaign website and Tourism Australia will be launching the next stage of this campaign later this week, here at ATE.
I encourage you all to capitalise on the success of this campaign - it was designed with you in mind - the people at the front line of selling Australia to the world.
Thank you for all your hard work and I trust you will utilize the benefits of ATE and the support of Tourism Australia to drive business to your door.
I look forward to continuing our work to build an even stronger and more competitive industry.
Thank you