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Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and thank you very much for the opportunity to be with you today.
I would like to start be saying that it is a very interesting time to be Australia's Minister for Tourism.
For the first time ever, the tourism industry is starting to be recognised as a key part of the Australian economy.
For far too long, it has been regarded as an add-on, rather than an integral part of the Australian workforce or a sizeable section of the Australian economy.
The facts are that tourism actually directly employs 480,000 Australians and represents 3.7 per cent of Australia's GDP.
But of course, our industry is presently facing some significant challenges.
The latest challenge is, of course, the Global Financial Crisis.
You would of course be hard pressed to find an industry unaffected by the global slowdown in economic growth.
But our industry will be particularly affected.
Only this week, we have seen some of our established key markets - such as the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and New Zealand - slipping into negative growth.
In response to the downturn, the Australian Government has taken a series of proactive measures to shield Australians from the impact of the crisis.
The centrepiece of the Australian Government's efforts is the $10.4 Billion 'Economic Security Strategy'.
The strategy will strengthen the national economy and support Australian households to withstand the economic slowdown.
The Economic Security Strategy will provide $3.9 billion in support payments for low and middle income families in the form of a one-off payment of $1,000.
The Prime Minister has urged Australian families to spend this money to provide a much needed boost to our economy.
The Australian tourism industry stands to benefit from this.
Yet tourism remains an industry fully exposed to the forces of international competition - both in terms of attracting overseas visitors, as well as encouraging Australians to holiday at home.
For some time, the strength of the Australian dollar has encouraged Australians to travel overseas.
In fact, the number of Australians travelling overseas grew by 11 per cent during 2007.
For much of the past decade, growth in domestic tourism has been stagnant.
Tourism Australia will continue to work hard at marketing Australia as a tourism destination in the face of the global financial crisis.
I am pleased Tourism Australia has seized the opportunity to capitalise on the huge global promotion around the new Baz Luhrmann film, Australia.
This is a unique opportunity to connect with prospective visitors and encourage those who 'see the movie' to 'see the country'.
Tourism Australia has also launched its new destination campaign which has been created by Baz Lurhmann.
The campaign was launched in the UK in early October and has already generated a 77 per cent increase in unique visits to Tourism Australia's UK website.
We tend to focus on Tourism Australia's role in promoting Australia internationally, which of course is an important part of its mission.
But Tourism Australia also has a responsibility to promote domestic tourism.
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of telling the Australian Parliament that Tourism Australia is about to roll out a domestic campaign which I strongly believe will be good for tourism, good for business, good for our economy - and importantly, good for those Australians who really should be taking a break.
Australian workers have been allowed to accumulate 121 million days of accrued leave.
The estimated wage value of that accrued leave is around $31 billion.
That is an enormous amount of leave entitlements which Australian workers should be utilising.
It is a massive liability being carried by employers.
Australians should be using their leave entitlements to take a break from the demands of work.
And employers should be encouraging their workers to take regular leave and helping their staff strike a good balance between work and life.
Ladies and gentlemen, Tourism Australia will next week convene a roundtable of representatives from the private and public sectors to facilitate the 'No Leave, No Life' program's roll-out throughout Australian workplaces.
This is an important step in engaging the public and private sectors in the program and building support for its objectives.
One of the issues identified in an earlier pilot of the 'No Leave, No Life' program was the importance of a strong commitment by senior management.
The issue of accrued leave needs to be a priority across management and not just an issue left to the HR department.
It has wider implications for a workplace and it requires leadership from the top to shift attitudes toward taking leave.
Managers need to show they are committed to providing a work/life balance in order for their employees to start using more of their leave entitlement.
A study commissioned by TA found that around 40 per cent of employees cited workplace issues as the most significant barriers to taking leave.
Clearly, we need to engage employers and senior managers on these issues to remove some of these the obstacles to Australians utilising their leave entitlements.
It is envisaged that 'No Leave, No Life' will include:
- a communications campaign to reach employers and employees about the importance of taking their leave
- an online portal to support organisations in changing their culture towards leave as well as offering holiday ideas; and
- a toolkit for employers to help them implement 'No Leave, No Life' in their workplace.
The tourism industry stands to gain from this initiative. I hope they will be strong supporters and will get actively involved with Tourism Australia in its roll-out.
Of course, you can all play a role by encouraging your staff to take their leave.
I am sure you each understand only too well the importance of the domestic tourism market.
We are facing challenging and difficult times for tourism. However, with these challenges come opportunities, particularly to stimulate domestic tourism.
We will be working hard to make the most of those opportunities, including by encouraging Australians to use some of those 121 million days of accrued leave entitlements on a holiday here in Australia.
Thank you for inviting me to be here with you and I look forward to your support for this initiative.