er department) can be questioned if the Divisions objective is to be met.
In addition to the Sport and Tourism Division, many other agencies make up the Federal Government's sport and tourism portfolio. These include:
· The Bureau of Tourism Research
· The Tourism Forecasting Council
· The Australian Tourism Commission
· The Australian Sports Commission
· The Australian Sports Drug Agency
· The Australian Sports Drug Testing Laboratory
The above structure begs the question: "Where does the hospitality industry fit in?" This is an obvious deficiency under current arrangements, although the Bureau of Tourism Research does utilise detailed visitor statistics relating to the hospitality industry. Included is an attachment (Attachment 1.0) a copy of the key strategies of the Department of Industry, Science and Resources. It should be noted that not one of these focuses specifically on the hospitality industry.
Statistics, obtained from the DISR web site, indicate the huge importance of the tourism sector to the Australian economy.
In 1997-98 - tourism accounted for 4.5% of expenditure on Gross Domestic Product
- Tourism was directly responsible for the employment of over 513, 000 people (6% of all those employed)
- International tourism to Australia generated export earnings of $12.8 billion or 11.2% of Australia's total export earnings.
Expenditure derived from domestic tourism was $45.5 billion in 1999.
Clearly the success or failure of our tourism industry will have a major impact on the national economy as it accounts for over one ninth of our export earnings.
The Tourism Forecasting Council forecasts that Australia could bring in more then 8.4 million visitors per year by 2008 and contribute $32.9 billion in export earnings.
Australian Sport International aims to increase sport and recreation exports to $1.3 billion by 2005.
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