Damien Jacobsen presented 'Walking together in remote tourism' to the 3rd Torres Strait Economic Summit, convened by the Torres Strait Regional Authority, on Thursday Island, 1-2 October 2015

1. Walking together in remote
tourism
Dr Damien Jacobsen
Principal Research Leader
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Tourism Product Project
Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation
Southern Cross University

2. Remote Aboriginal tourism enterprise survey
2

3. 3
Remote Aboriginal tourism enterprise challenges
Top 10 Challenges % of sample
Seasonality 87%
High costs of business 73%
Improving business revenue 73%
Young generation with low interest to work in tourism 67%
Geographic isolation 60%
Building business capacity 53%
Accessing skilled labour 53%
Lack of infrastructure 47%
Legislation and government issues 40%
Accessing visitor markets 33%
Improving competitiveness 33%

4. Remote Aboriginal tourism enterprise cooperation
4
Level of enterprise cooperation % of sample
Engage in cooperation with other enterprises 87%
Perceived importance of cooperation in competitiveness
 With other Aboriginal enterprises 61% (very important)
 With non-Aboriginal enterprises 71% (very important)
Desire to increase enterprise cooperation
 With other Aboriginal enterprises 75%
 With non-Aboriginal enterprises 87%

5. 5
Formal
meetings
Cluster
Industry value
chains
Marketing
Informal
meetings
Refer visitors
Cooperation used by remote
Aboriginal tourism enterprises
Groups
• 67% Combine with other
Aboriginal tourism operators
• 92% Combine with non-
Aboriginal tourism operators

6. 6
Industry value chains with other Aboriginal tourism
operators

7. Cooperate to overcome limitations
Be proactive
Take risks
Recognise opportunities in external resources
Create new products and sources of value for visitors
Find new ways to access target markets
Innovate together
Have a long term focus in tourism
Share benefits with each other
Integrate enterprises as part of a region
Use local knowledge to address the challenges of remoteness
7
In remote Australia, many Aboriginal people involved in
tourism are willing to:

8. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander principles of
enterprise clustering
8

9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqTA4H66JQY
9

10. 10
Thank you!
Please visit: http://crc-rep.com/
Some CRC-REP tourism project publications of interest:
Building knowledge for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander remote tourism:
Lessons from comparable tourism initiatives around the world
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tourism enterprise approaches to
creating value for visitors in remote Australia
Building value in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tourism enterprises in
remote Australia: The role of cooperation and clustering
Contact Details:
Dr Damien Jacobsen
Phone: 02 6620 3042
E-mail: damien.jacobsen@nintione.com.au