The health of tourism

With the decline of the US dollar and the United States in a recession, the tourism industry of North Western Ontario is concerned. Operators are not alone in their worry. Coming back from Australia, the Aussies are also worried about the health of tourism in Australia.
As in Canada, Australia nation wide is facing a decline of visiting tourists.
Through 2007 and now 2008, they have seen the number of visitors to the continent begin a slight decline. Newspaper articles noted that the increasing value of the Australian dollar in relationship to the US dollar is part of the problem.
When I was out on a dive boat to the Great Barrier Reef, the underwater photographer told us his video wedding business was hurting. The majority of that business came from Japanese tourists coming to the Cairns Australia region to be married. In 2008, they are now choosing Hawaii and Fiji and other countries whose currencies are tied to the US. Before they looked at the US as being too expensive to travel to.
The other often heard comment was the price of gas, which was running at $1.56 per litre.
Other countries, namely Thailand, Viet Nam and Korea are seen as inexpensive alternatives.
In Northwestern Ontario we are focused on tourists coming from the United States.
On a daylong bus tour, two US residents were telling another tourist from South Africa that they had come to Australia because they now found Canada too expensive since their US dollar had declined so much. Up to this year, they had annually made a trip to Canada. They had been lead to believe that Australia was an inexpensive vacation just as Canada used to be.
They didn’t expect to return to the Australia again because of the costs.
Across the district, the number of tourists arriving from the US has reached a plateau. The plateau has been blamed on high gas prices, the increasing value of the Canadian dollar, and border crossing issues.
The increased value of the Australian dollar is being driven by the same economic forces that drive the Canadian economy. Oil, natural gas, iron, gold, nickel, uranium and other metals are the driving force in Australia as China, and India are buying up those commodities to expand their own economies. Australia is the leading nation producer of 7 of the 10 ten minerals exported worldwide.
Canada is receiving the same boom from the increase in the value of minerals and petroleum products.
The economy of the United States is reeling and many US residents now find that they need every cent to keep their homes and feed their families. The use of corn, wheat, oats and barley for green fuel is driving up the price of food around the world.
While there was lots of complaining, the solution offered by most was for the US economy to reverse itself and the US dollar to rise against all other currencies in the world. It may eventually happen, but the turn around will take as long to made as the decline did.
Australia’s other chosen alternative is to open more direct air routes to all the major airports in Australia from Japan, China, Malaysia, India, Korea, Thailand and Russia. They see their nation and their future tied more to the Southeastern Asia market and the Pacific than to the North American market.

–Jim Cumming,
Publisher