Impression of a place?

Before people make a decision about where to go for a holiday or for a visit to a particular location, they spend a considerable amount of time discussing and researching the place/s as well as the options available to them. The amount of information and detail they require before embarking on their trip is often influenced by how familiar they are with the location, the place's distance from home, and whether they have visited the location previously. Table 2.4 on page 41 lists potential sources of information for influencing tourist and other perceptions of places, environments and people.

Australian tourists in their own 'backyard'

During the 1980s and 1990s, a new emphasis became apparent in the Australian tourist industry: Austral­ians were encouraged to think of their own country as a tourist destination as well as the more distant places. Tourism advertising suggested that Australians should become tourists in their own 'backyard' and see more of the huge variety of tourism sites, both natural and human made, in every corner of the continent. Australian 'internal' and 'domestic' tourism received a boost during this time. The fact that greater wealth and mobility existed in the community and

40

TRAVELLERS OVER TIME

Table 2.4 Sources of travel information

Source

E xamples

T alking to other people

Newspapers

Books

W estern Australia South Australia Victoria

Tasmania

New South Wales

Queensland

Northern Territory

Australian Capital

Territory

Friends, relatives or colleagues who may have had experiences in travelling to places are perhaps the most influential source of impressions. Remember, however, that their impressions are dependent on both positive and negative experiences and signify a very personal view based on many variable factors. Special tourist sections News pages Sport sections Special supplements Special (occasional) travel newspapers

Travel stories

Picture books and coffee-table books Novels

Regular weekly and monthly journals

Photographic essays National Geographic Australian Geographic Geo magazine New Woman New Idea Time

The Bulletin

Specialist journals

Posters TV programs

Vivid descriptions of tourist destinations Information about tours and accommodation Special packages, deals and prices Highlighted special activities and information for interest groups - for example hang gliding, surfing, orienteering, four-wheel-driving, gardening, photography, historical houses, and literary and cultural sites Promotion of special events Promotion of places

TV and radio commercials

Specific 'holiday' programs - for example 'Holiday' and 'Getaway' Travel documentaries - for example 'Around the World in 80 Days' and 'Pole to Pole' Wilderness and nature programs Soap operas that provide a view of people and environments - for example 'Paradise Beach' and 'Northern Exposure'

A product

Air travel

Sponsorship prizes Special group tours

Specific tourism commercials associated with sport

Travel offered as a prize in a competition Religious tours

Sport tours

Cultural tours

that competition existed among airline operators contributed to the trend. For a variety of reasons, Australians began to realise that they had some of the world's best tourist attractions that were, fortu­nately, mostly unspoilt by excessive concentrations of people. Some of our favoured domestic tourism destinations are listed in Table 2.5

T able 2.5 Some examples of places Australians visit in their own country

State or territory Place/s visited

The karri and jarrah forests

The 'green triangle' in the south east

Bendigo, Castlemaine and other

historical towns

The Derwent River valley

Broken Hill and White Cliffs

The Glasshouse Mountains

Howard Springs

The Australian National Botanic

Gardens

Tourism within Australia was not an invention of the '80s and '90s - it has always existed. It did, how­ever, receive more emphasis in these two decades, partly because of the important economic, environ­mental and social benefits that flowed to thousands of cities, regions, towns and villages. The character­istics of this tourism that received considerable pub­licity at the beginning of this period, and that remain evident today, are listed as follows.

The characteristics of domestic tourism

• Spending more leisure time taking shorter holi­days, that is, taking 'short breaks' rather than long holidays

• Spending more leisure time on an increased number of shorter holidays

• Spending more leisure time on weekend holidays

• Spending more time getting to know your own state and its key tourist regions

• Spending more time in one or two localities and less time on the road - rising fuel costs also in­fluenced this factor

• Participating more in healthy outdoor activities, making for a more active rather than passive tourism

• Using, appreciating and interacting more with the natural environment

• Interacting more with non-metropolitan city and town dwellers, through the focus placed on re­gional history, heritage, food, wine, music and art and the growing bed-and-breakfast market

41

TOURISM