ATEC’s new strategic plan to meet the challenges
of 2012 and beyond
By Felicia Mariani, managing director, Australian Tourism Export Council
OUR industry, like many others, is grappling with the challenges of the future – the need to remain relevant and valuable to customers, deliver on (and hopefully exceed) their expectations, and ensure business models are robust and sustainable.
Like our industry, ATEC is faced with these same challenges. At ATEC’s “Meeting Place” event in Sydney earlier this month I unveiled ATEC’s Roadmap to the Future – Our Strategic Plan 2012-2015.
It reflects our commitment to get “back to basics” to more fully reflect our responsibility to our members.
We consulted widely with members to define the key challenges affecting the growth potential of our industry.
• Creating and delivering quality tourism products and experiences that match the changing demands and expectations of consumers increasingly seeking customised and authentic experiences – and that means having access to the necessary research and insights.
• Effecting broad dispersal to regional and remote areas that include proposals for the hard infrastructure and related regulatory reform required to attract investment in these often sensitive regions;
• The availability of qualified labour with the skills to deliver quality experiences on the ground and in-language, if required.
Ensuring Australian tourism operators have the knowledge and capability to effectively engage in a competitive global marketplace navigate the range of distribution and marketing channels now available.
To meet these challenges, our plan
• Redefines our role and expands the impact that ATEC can have on our industry;
• Enhances the services that we can bring to our members and partners; and
• Ensures ATEC provides benefits, products and services that deliver tangible, financial and structural improvements to the industry and the people who ‘make’ it.
The plan outlines how we will align our organisation to deliver on our three key areas of focus – member and partner servicing; industry education and sector development and advocacy, policy and communication.
This sharpening of our focus has dictated our five key goals:
• Increase member satisfaction and engagement by defining more clearly our value proposition and by enhancing our relevance and value to the industry, members and partners.
• Redefine our relationship with our partners, both public and private sector, to deliver a customised range of services that responds to their specific objectives and priorities.
• Build industry capability and capacity for success by delivering education and development programs relevant to our members and by leveraging our areas of influence.
• Ensure ATEC is at the forefront of debates on issues that affect our industry.
• Grow our membership in a way that is sustainable and able to be serviced, reduce our attrition rate and continue to invest in ATEC.
ATEC View column appears quarterly.
