Corporate Plan 2021/22
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CORPORATE PLAN 2021/22 - 2024/25 australia.com | australia.cn | tourism.australia.com | businesseventsaustralia.com Vivonne Bay, Kangaroo Island, South Australia CONTENTS 0. IntroDUction 4 1. ManaGiNG DiRECTOR’S MESSAGE 6 2. ABOUT US 8 3. OperatiNG CONTEXT 14 4. PlanneD PERFormance AND KEY ACTiViTies 28 5. ResoUrciNG 50 6. PerFormance – MEASURiNG EFFecTiVeness 54 AppenDiX: RiSK APPETite, RiSK PROFiLE 68 Tourism Australia is an Australian Government Commonwealth corporate entity formed under the Tourism Australia Act 2004 (TA Act). It is governed by a Board of Directors that is appointed by the Minister responsible for tourism under the Tourism Australia Act 2004 (Cth) (TA Act) and the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act). This plan outlines Tourism Australia’s strategic direction, our objectives and goals for the period 2021/22 to 2024/25. It has been prepared in accordance with the TA Act and PGPA Act. Front cover: Clifton Beach, Queensland 0. INTRODUCTION I, as the accountable authority of Tourism Australia, present the 2021/22 Tourism Australia Corporate Plan, which covers the periods 2021/22 to 2024/25, as required under paragraph 35 (1)(b) of the PGPA Act and the TA Act. BOB EAST Chairman 4 Ellery Creek Big Hole, Northern Territory 1. N MANAGI G DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE In the past year, so much in our world has changed. While we all want to see the return of travellers from our key international markets, we recognise Off the back of the worst summer bushfires on record, that it will be some time before overseas visitors our industry was then confronted with the complete are travelling here at pre COVID-19 levels and that shutdown of travel globally due to the coronavirus Australian tourism’s recovery will be very much (COVID-19) pandemic. Prior to these dual crises, domestic-led. Australia’s tourism and business events sectors were performing well, with close to 5 million international Consumer confidence amongst Australians is at visitors and strong growth in spend – exceeding its highest level since the start of the COVID-19 $115 billion in combined domestic and international pandemic. And, despite the ongoing disruption overnight visitor spend.1 to travel more than half of all Australians are still considering or planning interstate travel. The impacts of these events on our sector and Tourism Australia’s business operations are Tourism Australia continues to focus on building significant and unprecedented and underpin our demand for travel, providing much-needed support response as detailed in this 2021-25 Corporate Plan. to tourism operators and communities around the country. Our domestic Holiday Here This Year campaign On a positive note, Australia’s health response encourages Australians to take a well-deserved break has resulted in comparatively low case numbers of in their own backyard, while our Event Here This Year COVID-19 and the successful roll out of the vaccine is campaign inspires corporates and event planners to now underway, against a backdrop of a strengthening host a business event in Australia. economy and rising consumer confidence. However, despite this rising optimism Australia’s tourism We know from our research that the appetite for and business events industry continues to face domestic travel is strong. Our job is to encourage considerable challenges which we expect will more Australians to holiday in their backyard and to continue into 2022. do this more often, and importantly to travel like an international traveller by booking tours Whilst some parts of our sector are doing and experiences. well, others are struggling. Cities and tourism destinations traditionally reliant upon international This focus on domestic does not mean we have visitation are amongst those sectors doing it tough. forgotten about international. A holiday to Australia And while Tourism Australia is seeking ways to is a longer purchase decision and the time between support these destinations through its marketing, making a booking and visiting can be as much as a ongoing changes to travel restrictions continue to year, especially in our longer haul markets. test our recovery efforts. As such, we continue to focus on keeping Australia Until state borders are fully and permanently open top of mind in our key international markets and and international visitors return, it will continue to generating long-term demand for travel to Australia be extremely challenging for many in the tourism by priming our audiences with our ‘always on’ sector. Internationally, the establishment of a Safe approach to ensure they book a holiday here as soon Travel Zone with New Zealand as a first step towards as it is practical to do so. reopening international travel remains limited in With the state and territory tourism bodies, airlines terms of delivering visitors in significant numbers. 1 Tourism Research Australia, (December 2019), 6 International Visitor Survey and Domestic Visitor Survey TOURISM AUSTRALIA and industry scaling back their international While we do not know how or when our industry will resourcing and pausing their marketing activities emerge from this crisis, we do know the tourism and overseas, Tourism Australia’s role in international business events landscape will be changed. This plan markets is more important than ever before. will see significant investment in our business and our people – investment in innovative technologies, Even though our global advertising campaigns new training, and new ways of working to ensure we are paused, we are staying active in all our key meet the requirements of our stakeholders and keep international markets through content partnerships, ahead of the competition. PR, advocacy, social, digital and trade marketing. Continuing to maintain this visible international And, while nobody truly knows exactly what travel presence is especially important now and will be more to Australia will look like in the future, or to any so in the coming months as competitor destinations other country for that matter, Australia’s handling open before us and upweight their investment in of the pandemic undoubtedly reinforces the country’s international marketing. already strong reputation for safety. Our consumer research already suggests that our strengths of As international travel resumes, every major outdoor lifestyle, spectacular nature, clean air, and international destination will be poised to market wide-open spaces will stand us in good stead for the themselves – and Australia must be ready too. We future as the world starts travelling again. must be ready to ramp up our marketing activities as quickly as possible, to switch focus towards These are undoubtedly tough times. The toughest converting interest in Australia, into bookings. many of us have ever faced. But better times are ahead, and it is important to keep looking forward. We acknowledge that our approach will need to It is also why it is more important than ever that we vary by market and be flexible enough to meet continue to work together and support one another, the needs of a post-COVID-19 travel environment. as well as our commercial, distribution and airline We have already developed a strategic framework, partners – in Australia and in market – to ensure that called the Green Light Project, to help identify the we all play a part in the recovery, which we hope to best approach and optimum timing to step up re- see start in 2020/21 and gather momentum as we investment in our key international markets. rollout this plan. The foundations of this international recovery plan On behalf of the Board, and the Tourism Australia rest upon our ability to reactivate essential aviation team, take care. capacity and global distribution, and on finding the most appropriate type of campaign activity in a post-pandemic world. We will continue with our balanced portfolio approach, prioritising those markets that reopen soonest and where travel is considered safe. New Zealand is one of the markets we expect to be key to Australia’s initial international recovery, and that Phillipa Harrison will be reflected in our marketing resourcing. Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer 7 Freycinet, Tasmania 2. ABOUT US Ambition Strategic priorities and Full recovery of Australia’s tourism industry enabling factors to 2018/19 expenditure levels by 2024/25. We will focus our effort through seven strategic priorities to aid the recovery of our industry - these Purpose priority areas are provided below, with further detail in Section 4: Grow demand to enable a competitive and sustainable Australian tourism industry. 1. Drive opportunistic conversion in the short-term, concentrating on specific audiences (long stay) Annual goals and markets (low risk travel corridors) 2. Expedite recovery for aviation and distribution We have set goals in four areas, recognising that 3. Be a unifying voice for industry our environment remains fragile and unpredictable. Key performance indicators and targets for each of 4. Elevate and champion Indigenous tourism these goals is provided in Section 6: 5. Drive awareness of, and capability for, — Grow visitor expenditure sustainable travel — Improve brand metrics 6. Generate long-term demand and growth — Drive industry recovery 7. Bolster the business events industry. — Rebuild the business events pipeline The following enabling factors will be important to delivery of our strategic priorities, with further detail in Section 4: — Insights driven strategies and decision-making — Engaged and