Tourism

The Australian Government is committed to maximising tourism's net economic contribution to the Australian economy and to fostering an industry that promotes the principles of environmental responsibility and sustainable development.

National Tourism Accreditation Framework

The Australian Government has been working with the States and Territories and with the Australian tourism industry to develop a National Tourism Accreditation Framework (NTAF). On 11 May 2010, the Australian Government announced funding of $5.5 million over four years to support the implementation and operation of the NTAF. Implementation of the NTAF is progressing well.

The NTAF provides an umbrella framework under which existing quality and accreditation programs can apply to co-brand with a common national brand and standard oriented to building consumer purchasing preference and corresponding market benefit for accredited participants.

The NTAF is being run as a co-operative initiative with:

Tourism Quality Council of Australia comprised of an independent chair, Commonwealth, State and Territory government and industry representatives responsible for decision making and setting overall policy direction of the NTAF,
Tourism Australia responsible for the NTAF brand, including the development and implementation of a marketing strategy; and
RET providing administrative, secretariat and policy support.

Tourism Quality Council of Australia

Under the National Long-Term Tourism Strategy, the Tourism Quality Council of Australia (TQCA) has been established to administer the NTAF. At the 30 April TMC meeting, ministers endorsed the membership of the Tourism Quality Council of Australia which will be charged with increasing the quality of Australia’s tourism product offering. The inaugural members of the TQCA are:

Simon Currant (independent Chair),
Shirley McPherson, industry representative
Ray Schleibs, industry representative
Rolf Dulks, industry representative
Wayne Clift, industry representative
Stephanie Buckland, Australian Standing Committee on Tourism representative
Katherine Harman, Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism
Matthew Cameron-Smith, Tourism Australia

The first meeting of the TQCA was held in Sydney on 19 May 2010, following a handover meeting with the industry and government Joint Working Group that had undertaken the development work on the NTAF.

At the TQCA’s second meeting on 21 June 2010, a number of priorities for implementation were agreed. It is anticipated that there will be a staged roll-out of the NTAF to industry from July through December 2010, with the TQCA embarking on consultation with industry over coming months.

TQCA Communiqués

23 June 2010 TQCA Communiqué[PDF, 12KB]