National Online Tourism Policy Initiatives for Australia

Abstract

The benefits of online technologies for the tourism industry include increased efficiencies in communications, research, marketing, financial transactions, and enterprise management. Australia has a history of public sector policy initiatives designed to encourage economic development. Tourism is seen as a key industry for economic development, and the perceived benefits of online technologies for tourism have led to a strong role within the policy context for encouraging technology uptake. There has been some concern on the part of the Australian government that a lack of a national policy to this point means that full benefits to the industry of the online technologies may not have been realized. As a result, the government initiated a program of research and industry consultation in 1999 to develop a national online tourism policy. This process identified five key initiatives that were to form the foundation of an online tourism policy. It is expected that implementation of these initiatives as part of a national online tourism policy will advance the goal of achieving a sustainable tourism industry for Australia.