Tourism Planning After Brexit: Impact on Australian Tourism

Running Head: TOURISM PLANNING AFTER BREXIT
August 18
2018
Impact of Brexit on
Australian tourism

TOURISM PLANNING AFTER BREXIT 1
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Tourism in Australia..................................................................................................................3
BREXIT.....................................................................................................................................3
Impact of Brexit on Australian tourism.....................................................................................4
Issues in Australian tourism.......................................................................................................5
More from less.......................................................................................................................6
Going, going.... Gone............................................................................................................6
Forever young........................................................................................................................7
Virtually here.........................................................................................................................7
Alternative plan to overcome the issue......................................................................................7
Tourism planning...................................................................................................................8
Government........................................................................................................................8
Businesses..........................................................................................................................9
Other stakeholders..............................................................................................................9
Feasibility of the plan.................................................................................................................9
The process of the plan............................................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................13

TOURISM PLANNING AFTER BREXIT 2
Introduction
With the help of development of the world infrastructure, people are getting access to every
corner of the world. Easy access is encouraging the tourism industry, as people can travel to a
number of places in less time (Edgell Sr, 2015). The increasing significance of tourism has
the potential to contribute significantly to the growth of an economy and environment
conservation of a nation (De Grosbois, 2016). In developing countries, the economic and
environmental conservation have been regarded as the driving force for tourism (Hingtgen,
et. al, 2015). As per the United Nations Development Programme, tourism has been
identified as a powerful engine that accelerates the safeguarding of bio-diversity, leads to
socio-economic development, and promotes cultural heritage of developing countries
(UNDP, 2011). It is observed that tourism has been regarded as a means of achieving the
sustainable development goals by many development organizations, like the Department of
International Development, World Bank, United Nations World Tourism Organization, and
the Asian Development Bank. With an annual growth of 7.4%, tourism has been considered
as the most significant phenomena for the socio-economic development of nations of the 20th
century (Asker, et al. 2011).
Economic changes of one nation may sometimes affect the tourism industry of another
nation. For instance, the economic crisis of the UK, popularly known as Brexit, affected the
Australian tourism as well. In 2016, UK had decided to withdraw its membership from the
European Union. The move was later defined as the British Exit (Brexit). This decision has
made the country's economy to fall at to lowest ever stage. Such economic crisis may affect
various industries in the other nations too, including the tourism industry. Australian tourism
has also been affected with this huge economic crisis of UK. This report describes the impact
of the exit of Britain from the European Union in 2016 on the Australian Tourism industry. In

TOURISM PLANNING AFTER BREXIT 3
addition to the above, the report presents a sustainable plan to overcome issues created by
such events.
Tourism in Australia
The Tourism industry plays an important role in the development of the country's economy
(Dredge & Jamal, 2015). In the year 2016, the Australian tourism industry had made a total
contribution of AUD 183.2 billion. This accounted for 10.9% of the total GDP of the country.
In terms of the industry, the tourism sector had employed around 890,000 people directly or
indirectly in the year 2015-16 (Tourism Australia, 2018). As per the latest statistics, the
tourism industry of Australia comprises around 279,000 businesses across different sectors
such as accommodation, restaurants, takeaway services, transportation and retail trade.
In the year 2018, Australian tourism industry has welcomed around 9 million visitors until
the ending of the March month. This shows a relative increase of 6.2% from the same data of
the same month of the previous year. The number of visitors in the month of May 2018 was
609,300, showing an increase of 5.2% from that of the previous year data of the same month
(Tourism Australia, 2018).
BREXIT
The term “Brexit” stands for the British Exit. This refers to the decision for the UK to leave
the European Union (EU). The majority of the voters in the UK had supported the decision of
the country to leave the EU in a referendum passed on 23 June 2016. The UK government
had invoked the Article 50 of the European Union Treaty for the same on 29 June 2017. The
European Union (withdrawal) Act, 2018, has fixed the period ending on the 21st January
2019, for the UK government to decide on how to proceed with the scheduled exit on 29
March 2019, at 11 p.m. (UTC). This decision will have a collective impact on the economy of