Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 11 Hansard (12 December) . . Page.. 2888 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

Of course, the ACT Government, through CanTrade, will also monitor progress. CanTrade will work in conjunction with the ACT Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Canberra Business Council, Canberra Tourism and the Bureau of Sport, Recreation and Racing and will act as a facilitator.

Our meetings in Nara, Osaka and Kobe were indeed very wide ranging and included discussions with business leaders in the cities' chambers of commerce and industry and one of Japan's most influential economic bodies, the Kansai Economic Federation. We also met with the mayors of Nara and Kobe and senior officials in the Australian Tourism Commission, Ansett, Qantas and Austrade. We visited the Asia Pacific Trade Centre, where two local Canberra companies have their Japanese operations, and met with more senior officials from the Nara Board of Education and Osaka's Olympic bid office. We also met with the Panasonic Gamba-Osaka, a soccer team which has strong ties to Canberra and which, along with another J-League side, will visit Canberra from next February. Delegates also visited Nara University; a number of schools, all of which are twinned with schools in the ACT; and Insearch, an agency of Education Australia located in Osaka. We visited a housing development site in Kobe where residential development is being assisted by a Canberra business specialising in prefabricated dwellings. We inspected waterfront developments in Osaka and Kobe to gain ideas for the proposed Kingston foreshore development.

Mr Speaker, as I mentioned earlier, these meetings provided invaluable insights into the marketing of Canberra as a tourist and investment destination and offered significant opportunities for our business community. Those opportunities which I believe should be pursued include the need to prioritise our tourism marketing strategy in Japan. I have already held preliminary meetings with Canberra Tourism to discuss the issue of effectively marketing Canberra in Japan and how we can address the lack of promotional material identifying Canberra as an ideal holiday destination. We must also consider whether it would be appropriate to focus our efforts on specific target markets such as students and retirees as well as specific areas of Japan such as the Kansai region, rather than use a scatter gun approach to try to cover the whole of Japan. To this end, I have asked CanTrade and Canberra Tourism to develop relevant policy advice for the Government and to consider the benefits of working with other agencies such as the New South Wales Tourism Association.

The chief executive of BASAT met separately with the Nara City Tourism Association and will be pursuing proposals for further contact and staff exchanges. Such exchanges will result in a clearer understanding of how to maximise the benefits that can be obtained from the sister city relationship and will assist in identifying the needs of tourists from both communities. Canberra Tourism will also follow up the student market, preparing itineraries to include low-cost accommodation, special after-hours activities, ecotourism, viewing Aboriginal artefacts and other activities suited to young student visitors.

We will also follow up an invitation from the Hilton hotel chain to consider exhibitions of Canberra region food and wine in their Osaka and Tokyo locations during October 1996. Whilst the ACT Government will act as a facilitator, the ACT Chamber of Commerce, the Canberra Business Council and private sector delegates will work together to progress the promotion. The president of the ACT Law Society will follow up the meeting with

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .