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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 14 Hansard (11 December) . . Page.. 5086 ..

MR HIRD (continuing):

3

Under the Aussie Specialist Program, the Australian Tourist Commission conducts seminars for travel agents to educate them about Australia with a view to generating more international tourists to Australia through better informed travel agents.

In the past these seminars have been conducted overseas but next year the travel agents in the program will be bought to Australia in May for a seminar in Brisbane. The states and territories will be given an opportunity to conduct tours before and after the seminar.

All the meetings and inspections were stimulating and worthwhile. We came back to Canberra with many ideas and a much broader perspective on tourism issues in NSW in general and the Australian Capital Region in particular.

I would like to put on the public record the Committee's appreciation to Mr Graeme Chambers from the Canberra Tourism and Events Corporation for arranging an interesting and informative program of meetings and inspections and provided helpful background information between appointments.

Finally, I would like to comment on the value of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Tourism. Members may not realise just how much we have done because most of the work of this Committee is done behind the scenes. The Committee has undertaken a number of visits.........within Canberra, interstate and overseas.........and briefings which have been invaluable. The work of this Committee should not be assessed by the number of reports it has completed.

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