ATEC slams TA efficiency cuts
The ability of Tourism Australia to gain more of the Asian market could be hit by Tuesday’s mini budget, a leading industry body fears.
The Australian Tourism Export Council’s major concern is that the increase in TA’s efficiency dividend from 1.5% to 4.0% may hamper it in the critical markets of China and India.
ATEC boss Felicia Mariani said TA was already faced with having to find $1.5 million in efficiency dividends and would now have to contribute between $3.5 and $4 million. The big question is where the efficiency cuts will come from.
“The first thing you always try to do is cut out non-essentials like back of house costs and administrative expenses,” Ms Mariani said. “But I doubt very much that TA is going to be able to achieve $4 million just in that area alone.”
That means carving into things like advertising and promotion budgets.
“We need TA out there pushing the Australian message in those international markets, they are our key driver and the lead entity in those markets and we need them to be strong and have a powerful voice.”
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