Summer tourism

Tourism promotion had boosted booking for companies involved in the venture by 49 per cent.

He said Gold Coast Hinterland holiday bookings were up 35 per cent and Caloundra up 50 per cent on 12 months ago.Tourists were being drawn from New South Wales and Victoria, he said.

“The biggest areas that we draw people from are New South Wales and Victoria and they are back to Queensland in greater numbers,” he said.

“It should also be borne in mind that Far North Queensland is also doing very well.”

One of Queensland’s key holiday booking accommodation providers, the Mantra Group – which operates hotels on the Gold and Sunshine coasts and in North Queensland – is showing a five per cent increase in bookings overall.

“In Far North Queensland, the Mantra Group is seeing a six per cent increase, while on the Sunshine Coast it is 6.5 per cent increase. So the good news is spreading right across the state,” Mr Elmes said.

He disagreed that it would be a backward step to remove penalty rates for tourism operators – as is being considered in a discussion paper released last week by Attorney General Jarrod Bleijie – if the tourism industry were already seeing signs of recovery.

“That is an issue for the Attorney-General,” Mr Elmes said.

“But generally what you have to do is – no matter what the industry is, and in this case we are talking about tourism – is to ensure that you are competitive,” he said.

Mr Elmes said the government wanted to raise productivity across all industries, not just tourism, as part of the discussion paper review.

English tourist, Emily Cowan, from the Isle of Man, said 2012 in Queensland was her first hot Christmas, and she had already visited the Gold and Sunshine coasts and North Queensland.

“We are off to the Woodford Folk Festival next week,” her fiancée Andrew Bazzo said.

Queensland’s beauty is in its natural environment, Emily said.“It is so different from everything I have known before. I have only been in the Northern Hemisphere,” she said.

“When you are in Europe it is all the buildings and the European culture.

“Here it is just the amazing beaches and the trees and the views and the weather. It is just the natural beauty.”

Global Tourism

► The nature of Philippine formal institutions affects the entrepreneurial orientation of the Philippine tourism industry. ► Entrepreneurial orientation improves the performance of the tourism sector.      

The China Chamber of Tourism and the Macao government hosted a three-day forum with the main

purpose of finding new collaborations in the travel and tourism industry to foster greater economic 

growth globally. Executives and officials are looking into all areas of the industry and checked out ways on how to foster its growth. They examine and evaluate areas of growth from searching new budding 

markets to setting up successful and productive big events. A panel discussion was sponsored by China Daily on September 11, 2012 focusing on the importance of using new technologies efficiently.

 The impact of technology in the industry is enormous. One example that contributed to the formulation of this forum was the boom of Lonely Planet’s apps all over the world. Lonely Planet, a simple travelling guide, is a 40-year old business that contains the founders’ trip experiences across Asia from the UK to Australia. This simple business turned into a big giant and a significant multimedia business. Lonely Planet is best known for their guidebooks but it also has websites, mobile applications, e-books, and television. The company even sells all kinds of things.

New Technology and media has changed the way of tourism. Travelers turn to the internet to research on potential destinations and do bookings online. They even include sharing their experiences of the trips they go to. The executive director of Ctrip.com said that consumers know more about the industry and travel businesses cannot make money from the information gap anymore. The past ten years has empowered consumers greatly. A great majority of travelers do their search online for bookings, travel guides and visas. According to John Liu, the executive vice-president and head of Greater China at Google, 85% of travelers do their research on the net and the average traveler does 55 online searches before a booking. Comparing and looking for information is very easy now and all kinds of information are available on the internet.

Another topic that was discussed in the panel was the impact of Global Positioning System (GPS) on how the airlines operate and on how easy traveling has become around an unfamiliar city. Millions of people around the world have benefited from this technology. What seems to be impossible in the past has become acceptable at present like travelling from one point to another by using a virtual boarding pass, self check-in of luggage and more. After this three-day forum, executives and officials hope to establish better ties among each other and implement their plans so that continuous economic growth in the travel and tourism industry will be achieved.