Strategic Issues in the Australian Tourism Industry: An Analysis of National Tourism Strategies and Plans

Abstract

Predicting future events, trends and issues that will impact on the tourism sector is not an exact science. The 21st century has already seen a number of significant, radical and unexpected events, and in many instances the industry has not been prepared to respond to the magnitude of these, nor appreciated the extent to which such events would impact on tourist activity and businesses. In such a volatile global climate, more than ever there is a need for the tourism industry as a whole to embrace a disciplined, structured and continuous approach to identifying and monitoring future trends and issues to inform policy making and strategic planning. The tourism sector has often been criticised for its lack of strategic direction, particularly in relation to policy and planning. Indeed, some have described the public sector as being overtly concerned with marketing and product development. Given this background, the purpose of this paper is to present the results of an analysis of current and future issues identified in a sample of Australian national level tourism strategies and plans. The results show that despite pressing global issues such as climate change, at a national level, the Australian tourism industry is primarily concerned with issues of product development and marketing.