'Senior tourism best hope for industry expansion'
14/05/2008(16:48)
The baby boom generation provides the best opportunity for growth in the Australian tourism industry, a survey has found.
In a poll conducted by Roy Morgan Research for the upcoming Tourism Futures conference, nearly 40 per cent of industry professionals identified senior tourism or "grey nomads" as being important for the expansion of the sector during the next year.
"The long flight to Australia is holding up a lot of travellers. People in Europe and North America are tending to take more frequent, short haul holidays for maybe a week, so we need to target the people who have plenty of time such as the 'baby boomers'," explained the conference's convenor Tony Charters.
A more entrepreneurial approach to the country's national parks, investment in infrastructure and co-ordination of all three levels of government is crucial, he added.
Meanwhile, the Tourism Council of Western Australia has recently claimed that a shortage of hotel rooms in Perth will lead to more accommodation being built, boosting the industry.
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