Tourist exec warns about govt intervention

SYDNEY, March 22 (AAP)-The head of a billion dollar global attractions group has warned that Australia should avoid government intervention in the tourism industry amid worldwide debate about improving service standards.
The comments come amid a high Australian dollar and natural disasters that have hampered the Australian tourism industry as it attempts to boost domestic and international visitor numbers.
Merlin Entertainment Group chief executive Nick Varney says Australian tourism is doing relatively well by global standards.
Just a fortnight ago his company acquired the Village Roadshow Ltd's Sydney Attractions subsidiary for $115 million.
Mr Varney said there was debate in Europe and the United States about introducing codes to ensure tourism service standards remained high for hotels and major attractions.
"For some reason people think the market economy works differently for tourism than it does for anything else," Mr Varney told AAP.
"The bottom line is if I build a rubbish car, nobody's going to buy it and it's exactly the same in tourism.
"If I run a rubbish visitor attraction or a rubbish hotel, nobody's going to stay in it."
Businesses that wanted to win market share would provide an excellent quality service and product and squeeze out competitors who were not offering that, he said.
"There are no quality programs endorsed by the government on cars, packaged goods or washing machines, so why should you have it on tourist products".
Merlin, a UK-based private equity group valued at 2.25 billion pounds ($A3.66 billion), plans to list on the London Stock Exchange within five years and expand its portfolio in Australia and Asia.
It operates attractions in 16 countries including theme parks, Legoland parks and the recently acquired Sydney Aquarium and Sydney Wildlife World.
The group plans to bring Madam Tussauds wax museum to Sydney in 2012 to join Oceanworld Manly, Sydney Tower Observation Deck and Sky Walk and Hamilton Island Wildlife Park in Queensland.
Mr Varney said savvy consumers the world over were no longer putting up with expensive, poor quality tourism experiences.
"It's happening in America, the UK and in Germany," he said.
"People who thought they could get by with giving visitors poor product at high prices are not in business anymore".
Tourism Research Australia figures published last week show domestic holiday travel remains flat, with visitor nights and overnight spending a mere one per cent up compared with the corresponding period in the previous year.
A record high Australian dollar is also hurting tourism operators as overseas travellers stay away and Australians holiday abroad.
On Monday the federal government announced a joint federal and state tourism plan to give 200 journalists from 22 countries a chance to travel throughout Queensland in a promotional exercise following recent natural disasters in that state.
Federal Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson said more than 222,000 Queenslanders "owed their living" to the tourism industry.
Mr Varney, who visited Australia last week, said it appeared that the federal government had undertaken creative tourism campaigns.
"I'm sure every government could do more," Mr Varney said.
"All I know is that I see television advertisements for coming to Australia, I see a 10 per cent (GST) tax rate, not a 20 per cent (UK) tax rate.
"I see innovative initiatives like Oprah's tour and I see a pretty conducive environment to investment and that is all quite different to what I see in the UK."
There were only a small group of countries worldwide that understood the importance of tourism and had adjusted their tax rates accordingly, he said.