AustLit

'Tourism is a major industry in Australia, employing six percent of the working population and directly contributing nearly five percent of GDP in the year ending June 20011. Despite setbacks nationally in provision of transportation and internationally with terrorism fears spooking a major source, the tourism industry appears to continue to develop2, and references to visitor surveys point to widespread and continuing interest in cultural tourism and especially Indigenous Australian tourism opportunities. Various federal, state and territory initiatives exist and are being advanced to support various tourism strategies, including, for example, development of websites as gateways to knowledge of visitor opportunities, and a federally-funded Indigenous Tourism Leadership Group, the latter being a ‘whole of government’ initiative involving co-ordination of the work of several departments, and drawing on a wide range of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian experience and interests. The Commonwealth government released this year a discussion paper summarising a variety of proposals as a stage in the development of a ten-year plan.'  (Editorial introduction)