About the Indigenous Tourism Development Working Group
Membership
Priorities and achievements
More information
About the Indigenous Tourism Development Working Group
The Indigenous Tourism Development Working Group was established under the National Long-Term Tourism Strategy. Through the updated Tourism 2020, the working group focuses on ways to increase the quality and quantity of Australia's Indigenous tourism product offering, and the participation of Indigenous Australians in the tourism industry.
Indigenous culture is a key point of differentiation for Australia in a highly competitive international tourism market. However, Australia's Indigenous tourism offering needs further development if it is to maximise its economic and social contribution.
Membership
- Tourism NT (Chair)
- Australian Government Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism
- Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
- Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
- Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities
- Tourism Australia
- Tourism Queensland
- Indigenous Tourism Government Forum (through Tourism Australia)
- Indigenous Business Australia
- Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators Committee
- Reconciliation Australia
Priorities and achievements
Indigenous Tourism Employment Roundtable
On 5 December 2011 the Minister for Tourism, the Hon Martin Ferguson AM MP, hosted the Indigenous Tourism Employment Roundtable which included leaders from the tourism and hospitality industry, to discuss work underway and actions needed to increase Indigenous employment and career opportunities in the tourism industry.
The Indigenous Tourism Development Working Group priorities for the next 12 months have been identified through the Indigenous Tourism Employment Roundtable. These priorities include:
- Location-based Indigenous tourism employment pilots;
- Building partnerships across industry sectors to expand indigenous employment, training and career pathways;
- Improving access to government support programs for small to medium tourism enterprises; and
- Strategies to reduce immediate barriers to employment
Major Achievements for the Indigenous Tourism Development Working Group over the last 12 months include:
- Programs to facilitate skills transfer to Indigenous and non-Indigenous businesses
The Savannah Way project, currently underway, is a pilot project involving tourism operators in QLD, NT and WA. A small number of Indigenous tourism businesses have been selected to be mentored by successful business owners involved in the Savannah Guides program. Mentoring will include areas such as site development, product development, accredited training and business management and improvement.
The aim of this program is to develop emerging Indigenous tourism businesses to become leading local enterprises with ongoing professional development and business growth, with an emphasis on employing additional Indigenous staff.
- Program to guide and assist employers on how to employ Indigenous people in the tourism industry
Initiated by the Working Group, the project was a unique collaborative traineeship project for Indigenous Australians led by Tourism Tropical North Queensland with participation from Job Services Australia, the Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations, the Queensland Government and local tourism industry operators. The project developed a model for small to medium mainstream tourism businesses to use training and employment pathways to recruit and employ Indigenous Australian job seekers. An evaluation of this program has been conducted and provides valuable insight and recommendations to be used for further programs of this kind. See Report in Related Documents below.
- Audit of funding programs to identify duplications and gaps with recommendations of how to address these, e.g. development of a program to guide and assist employers on how to employ Indigenous people within the tourism industry
The working group found through the audit that an adequate variety of programs to assist the development of Indigenous tourism employment and businesses was available. However, there is a need to better communicate information about these programs to the industry.
The suite of Programs and Resources to aid Indigenous Tourism Development was launched at the Tourism Ministers' Council meeting on 15 April 2011. Information on the suite of programs was provided to industry by the Australian Government and state and territory governments. The list of the Programs and Resources is available in the Related Documents area below.
Related Documents
| Documents' name | PDF | Other formats |
|---|
| Summary of Outcomes—Indigenous Tourism Development Working Group Meeting, 22 February 2012. |  [PDF 81KB] |  [DOC 91KB] |
| Summary of Outcomes—Indigenous Tourism Development Working Group Meeting, 23 April 2012 | [PDF 76KB] | [DOC 124KB] |
| Summary of Outcomes—Indigenous Tourism Development Working Group Meeting, 31 July 2012. | [PDF 97KB] |  [DOCX 81KB] |
| Summary of Outcomes—Indigenous Tourism Development Working Group Meeting, 24 September 2012 | [PDF 97KB] | [DOCX 81KB] |
| Summary of Outcomes—Indigenous Tourism Development Working Group Meeting, 10 December 2012 | [PDF 103KB] | [DOCX 82KB] |
| Evaluation of the TTNQ Indigenous Employment Program | [PDF 3.5MB] | |
| Programs and Resources to Aid Indigenous Tourism Development | [PDF 160KB] | [DOC 1.9MB] |
More information
For more information about the Indigenous Tourism Development Working Group contact email ascot-tmm@ret.gov.au.