The Success of the Backpacking Industry Associations in Australia for NZ Industry

This morning at the New Zealand Backpacking Industry Julian Ledger CEO of YHA New South Wales opened the conference with an overview of the Australian backpacking industry.  To me the most interesting stuff was the overview of the success of the industry association.

Julian introduced the audience to the formation of the Backpacking Operators Association in NSW and then the Backpacker Tourism Advisory Panel.  I am very glad that Julian opened the NZ industries eyes to these successes.  My experience with Backpacking Queensland over the last three years has showed me just how formidable these organisations are and what they can achieve and has dramatically increased my frustration with the NZ industry.

Take the Working Holiday Visas in Australia for example – something that BTAP has been instrumental  in shaping.  The working holiday visas generate significant travellers to Australia.  At the ATEC conference in Darwin in April this year one figure that was shown was that backpackers had at that stage “taken” 40,000 Australian jobs – but, generated 48,000 jobs.  A net gain of 8,000 jobs.  Many of these backpackers work in rural and hospitality sectors where there are desperate labour shortages.  A lot of them work in jobs basically looking after each such as within the hostels and backpacker bars.

Other things that I have seen be so successful are the international marketing initiatives, for example the road show of Australian operators to France and Germany after this years World Youth Student Conference in Manchester.

The New Zealand backpacking industry lives in the dark ages in comparison to our Australian counterparts.  The NZBackpack.com industry group is a fabulous start and I can’t applaud enough the work of Daniel Shields of YHA New Zealand for his work.  However, I hope we can catch up quickly by learning many of the lessons from Australia.  Julian for example stated that he did not believe the industry groups should be promoting a direct consumer portal as it is too hard to compete with the large commercial sites – I agree with this (despite the fact that I am paid to work on the BackpackingQueensland.com.au website) and think it is one of the hurdles we need to address in the NZ Backpacking Industry Group.  Likewise, the main players such as Magic Bus and Kiwi Experience, Base Backpackers and Nomads, are too preoccupied with their own gardens than working together to grow the whole NZ industry.  There is still a dreadful competitive attitude in which these companies will go behind each others backs work independently on intiatives that should have been industry-wide.  The New Zealand industry needs to wake up to the Australian industry example and realise that by working together to attract international tourists to the country and lobbying government to ensure that the sector is not penalised by ill-considered government policies (such as bed night taxes) there will be more than enough travellers for everyone to battle with each other on the ground once they get here.