Opinion
- The trip you forgot you took
  
  In this guest posting, TNS Director, Travel & Leisure, Carolyn Childs explains how to make the most of visiting friends and relatives
  
  How to get more Australians travelling at home more often remains a hot topic for the domestic tourism market. It’s a passion of mine and the reason we set up our Domesticate research. In spite of apparently long periods of stasis or decline, we continue to believe passionately in the opportunities in the domestic market. The interesting thing is that some of them are right under our noses. We all know they’re there, but it’s almost as if they’re hidden in plain sight. Read more »
- There’s nothing like inertia in the face of a downturn
  
  Do you remember the big fanfare when Tourism Australia launched its ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’ campaign, and invited the nation to share its favourite Australian places and experiences with the world? I’m sure you do, we wrote about it extensively at the time, and TA managing director Andrew McEvoy even wrote a column for Thumbrella urging the backpacking sector to get involved. Read more »
- Here’s how to cash in on the gap year boom
  
  In this guest posting, Gapyear.com founder Tom Griffiths tells you how to cash in on disappointed UK students who miss out on a university place this year.
  
  UK media reports that 200,000 young people will miss out on university places this year may be overhyped – in truth about 100,000 don’t normally get in anyway – but it’s still a shocking statistic. And an opportunity for you guys Down Under to cash in. Read more »
- Lonely Planet – the gift that keeps on giving
  
  There’s nothing my kids hate more than hearing me start a telling off with the phrase “when I was a kid…” It usually follows them taking an ordinary household item – like the family computer – for granted. Read more »
- ATEC could do worse than appoint the next Matt Hingerty to replace the last one
  
  As a long-suffering England soccer fan, I’ve noticed a trend in the way the Football Association appoints the national team manager. That is, it tends to go for the polar opposite of the man who went before. If you don’t believe me, here’s the recent evidence… Read more »
- Another Wicked piece of marketing
  
  I’ve written about this before, but once again I have to confess to a sneaking admiration for the PR and marketing expertise of John Webb and Wicked Campers. Read more »
- Grounds for cautious optimism, but things could get worse before they get better
  
  Just got back from a couple of weeks in London – surely the world’s most depressed capital city at the moment, but more of that later – and everyone I speak to seems to be 20 per cent down. Read more »
- BOA successfully talks up the ‘Gong and south coast
  
  BOA president Katrina Greeves’ wrap-up on last week’s regional meeting in Wollongong.
  
  Over 10 local South Coast tourism operators joined BOA Committee representatives and members at the ‘BOA Talks South Coast’ event in Wollongong last Thursday to engage in lively debate regarding travel and tourism issues affecting the backpacker, student and youth market in the south coast region. Read more »
- What prison taught me about discounting
  
  Founder of Brokepacker.com Kevin Lippy explains there are three types of discounting ahead of the website’s launch tonight.
  
  A prison yard is a tough, volatile, dangerous, cut throat and an extremely unpredictable environment… Kind of like the Australian backpacking industry during low season. Read more »
- How many backpackers does it take to change a lightbulb?
  
  Thumbrella is conducting an exclusive industry survey this week, with just one question. How many of your customers are idiots? Read more »
- How’s business?
  
  So, how’s business? It’s a simple question, but it seems there’s no easy answer. Read more »
- Australian backpacking is the pulse we watch to gauge the health of the industry worldwide
  
  In this guest post, gapyear.com founder Tom Griffiths relects on the recent ATEC Backpacker and Youth Industry Conference and why Australia’s backpacking industry still leads the world.
  
  Like most of the delegates I spoke to, I found the recent ATEC Backpacker and Youth Industry Conference extremely interesting and useful. It’s very easy in these current times to set a safe agenda to cater for an industry licking its wounds, who want to hear good news stories and see rainbows ahead. Read more »

How to tell the difference between news and propaganda

E-travelblackboard has a fascinating take on news that domestic tourism has fallen by 13 per cent in the first three months of 2009.

Despite the headline correctly highlighting the slump, the intro adopts an altogether more upbeat, albeit contradictory, tone.

It reads: “Australians do not appear to be downgrading their holidays in the face of the downturn, with the domestic holiday sector shrinking by 13% in the first three months of the year, new numbers show.”

The piece goes on to highlight a decline in visitor nights and spend, presumably as further evidence that Australians are refusing to let that pesky global financial crisis alter their holiday buying habits.

This argument seems to be based on the theory that the decline in domestic tourism is evidence travellers are taking advantage of cheap international flights and trading up (i.e. overseas) instead.

Unfortunately, the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures would appear to suggest otherwise.

Fortunately, Federal Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson rides to the rescue with a more realsitic analysis.

“The global economic recession is significantly affecting consumer confidence to travel and this has impacted on the domestic market during the March quarter.”

But e-travelblackboard can’t possibly leave things on such a gloomy note, so it concludes with this upbeat gem.

“Tourism Australia launched a No Leave, No Life campaign to encourage travellers to utilise their annual leave on domestic vacations on the 30th of March. These numbers will hopefully come through in the second quarter figures.”

We can only hope.

By Martin Lane · June 18th, 2009 at 1:36 pm