Prof. dr.

Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld
Is Cultural Sustainability an attainable Goal? Andrea Borzì

TOURISM VICTORIA:
A TOURISM POLICY TO ENHANCE CULTURAL HERITAGE

Summary

My paper wants to answer to some main questions. How should be planned a tourist destination to
develop and enrich also the community? And above all, what kind of approach should be adopted?
These questions will be argued relating them to cultural tourism. OECD asserts that building strong
relationships between culture and tourism can increase attractiveness and distinctiveness of
destinations in the worldwide market. Moreover, tourism gives the opportunity to increase income
for supporting local cultural heritage. It requires cooperation and trust among all actors involved.
Local communities also should be considered key players; In fact, they are part of the destination,
also for improving visitors’ tourism experiences (OECD, 2009)1. This important concept is also
underlined by Xavier Greffe in “Culture and local development” (2005)2. The definition of “culture
tourism” is useful to be aware of the main concept of my paper. According to the literature it is:
“the movement of persons to cultural attractions away from their normal place of residence, with
the intention to gather new information and experiences to satisfy their cultural needs” (Richards,
1996)3.

The case analysed in my paper will be Victoria (Australia) and its tourism policy to enhance
cultural heritage, “Victoria’s Arts, Theatre & Cultural Heritage Tourism Action Plan” (Tourism
Victoria, 2010)4. The latter could not be necessarily the best practice. I will study its planning to
underscore, step by step, which are its characteristics and if it could be considered a benchmark.

First of all, I will describe what the context is with a statistical and a strategic overview. Secondly, I
will illustrate objectives and target markets. Furthermore, I will identify main stakeholders involved
and methods of evaluation. Moreover, I will use descriptive information collected to point out the
approach adopted and some strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the plan.

1
OECD, (2009), The Impact of Culture on Tourism. Paris: OECD Publishing; Online:
http://www.em.gov.lv/images/modules/items/OECD_Tourism_Culture.pdf [Accessed 09/05/2011]
2
Greffe, X., (2005), Culture and Local Development, Paris: OECD Publishing
3
Richards, G. (1996) Cultural Tourism in Europe. CABI, Wallingford Online: http://www.tram-
research.com/cultural_tourism_in_europe.PDF [Accessed 07/05/2011]
4
Tourism Victoria (2010), “Victoria’s Arts, Theatre & Cultural Heritage Tourism Action Plan”, Available
on-line: http://www.tourism.vic.gov.au/images/stories/Documents/StrategiesandPlans/Arts-theatre-cultural-
heritage-plan-2010-to-2014.pdf [Accessed: 28/04/2011]
Prof. dr. Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld
Is Cultural Sustainability an attainable Goal? Andrea Borzì

Table of contents

Summary .............................................................................................................................................. 1

Table of contents .................................................................................................................................. 2

Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 3

1. The context ....................................................................................................................................... 3

1.1. Statistical Overview .................................................................................................................. 3

1.2. Strategic Overview .................................................................................................................... 4

2. The plan............................................................................................................................................ 4

2.1. Objectives .................................................................................................................................. 4

2.2. Stakeholders .............................................................................................................................. 5

2.3. Target Markets .......................................................................................................................... 6

3. Swot Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 7

4. Approach Adopted .......................................................................................................................... 7

References ............................................................................................................................................ 7
Prof. dr. Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld
Is Cultural Sustainability an attainable Goal? Andrea Borzì

Introduction

The tourism industry makes an important contribution to the economic and social wellbeing of
Victorian communities. It almost employs 179,000 people and injects approximately $15.1 billion
to the State’s economy. A lot of action plans has been written to maintain and improve the role of
industry in the national economy. Every action plan regards a market segment. One of those directly
regards cultural tourism, “Victoria’s Arts, Theatre & Cultural Heritage Tourism Action Plan”.

1. The context

1.1. Statistical Overview

Analysing the cultural tourism in Victoria is nonsense without a statistical overview, to understand
its value and its role. As regards actual trends, in the last years the number of domestic visitors had
a decrease while overseas tourists have maintained a stable growth. In 2009 there were 938,000
international cultural visitors to Victoria. They represented 61% of all international tourists (Arts
Victoria, 2010)5. One of the most important markets is the Asian one that represents 38% of total
international cultural tourists. Moreover other relevant markets are United Kingdom (15%), North
America (12%) and Europe (16%). Furthermore, as regards age (of international tourists), they are
generally the same of the rest of Australia. In fact, most of them have 25-44 years old (Tourism
Australia, 2010)6 Very interesting is the average length of stay for international cultural visitors, in
2009 it was 26.8 nights. It was higher than other kind of tourists. If we look at detailed statistics we
can notice that most of tourists that stay in Victoria many days visit “friends or relatives” (Tourism
Research Australia, 2008)7. Usually, international tourists visit museums, art galleries and historical
buildings. 30% attended theatre, concerts or other performing arts activity. Only 9% experienced
Aboriginal art/craft and cultural displays.

As regards domestic cultural visitors around 2.8 million day visitors attended cultural venues and
events in Victoria and the average length of stay was 3.7 nights. The most popular attractions for
Victoria's domestic cultural tourists were museums and art galleries. Performing arts events also are
experienced a lot. Moreover 24% of tourists visit historic buildings and monuments and 19% visit

5
Arts Victoria (2010), Cultural Tourism, On-line:
http://www.arts.vic.gov.au/Research_and_Resources/Cultural_Data/Snapshots/Cultural_Tourism [Accessed:
29/04/2011]
6
Tourism Victoria (2010) Market Profile Year Ending December 2009 Online:
http://www.tourism.vic.gov.au/marketing/marketing/market-segments/ [Accessed: 30/04/2011]
7
Tourism Research Australia (2008) Regional Tourism Profiles 2007 Victoria Online:
www.tra.australia.com [Accessed: 30/04/2011]
Prof. dr. Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld
Is Cultural Sustainability an attainable Goal? Andrea Borzì

festivals and fairs. Both international and domestic cultural visitors, usually, spend more money
than non-cultural tourists. (Tourism Victoria, 2010)8

1.2. Strategic Overview

“Victoria’s Arts, Theatre & Cultural Heritage Tourism Action Plan” is part of 10 Year Tourism
and Events Industry Strategy that the Government of Victoria State developed in 2006. The latter
wanted to give more consideration to tourism and events industry, looking at it as a tool for the
economic development. To achieve aims of the main strategy Tourism Victoria Business Plan
2008–2011 was developed.

More recently, Tourism Victoria released the Regional Tourism Action Plan 2009–2012 too, for
formulating in a better way activities and the course for tourism in regional areas. Furthermore, to
stimulate the growth of every market, detailed plans have been released, such as the “Victoria’s
Arts, Theatre & Cultural Heritage Tourism Action Plan”. Other plans regard nature based tourism,
wellness tourism and, at last, food and wine tourism.

2. The plan

2.1. Objectives

Objectives of “Victoria’s Arts, Theatre & Cultural Heritage Tourism Action Plan” (Tourism
Victoria, 2010)9 concerns six principal points. The first one is maintaining leadership position, since
recent researches shows that Melbourne is recognised as the cultural capital of Australia but some
destinations (like Queensland) aim to acquire renowned cultural exhibitions and events and to make
stronger partnerships with cultural institutions.

The second objective is to revitalize existing products thanks to new investment in infrastructure,
service delivery and product innovation. To renovate is more and more important to meet tourists’
needs and to improve social and economic benefits to the area. In art product innovation steps, a
wide participation and cooperation is important, in fact, as an Arts Victoria report demonstrates arts
can be a powerful and inclusive way of strengthening communities. Moreover its aim is to maintain

8
Tourism Victoria (2010), “Victoria’s Arts, Theatre & Cultural Heritage Tourism Action Plan”, Available
on-line: http://www.tourism.vic.gov.au/images/stories/Documents/StrategiesandPlans/Arts-theatre-cultural-
heritage-plan-2010-to-2014.pdf [Accessed: 28/04/2011]
9
Cf. 8
Prof. dr. Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld
Is Cultural Sustainability an attainable Goal? Andrea Borzì

the same brand reputation renovating the products. To understand better this concept we can use the
following model (Figure 1). The brand remains one, while products (A, B, C) change adhering to
brand essence.

Brand

Product lifecycle C
Product lifecycle B
Product lifecycle A

Time
Figure 1: Renovating products

The third objective regards the competitive advantage. It should be improved. For instance,
Melbourne occupies its strong competitive position since 1990s and recently, according to market
researches, is going to improve its positive image also against Sydney. The latter is the key
competitor. This objective, according to the plan, will be guaranteed also through events.

Moreover, thanks to the plan, industry coordination and partnerships should be improved to support
growth. Furthermore attention should be taken on identifying integrated and cooperative marketing
opportunities for arts and cultural heritage product and on assuring evaluation and reporting about
cultural tourism development.

2.2. Stakeholders

To achieve the aims of an event tourism policy, it is important to define who is responsible for
developing and implementing it. The responsibility can be shared among different organisations or
just one agency can be in charge of it. At the same time, it could happen that the organisation which
has the responsibility for overall tourism policy has, among its tasks, the management of cultural
events or an ad hoc body could be created. In the case of Victoria State, the following organisations
could be identified (Tourism Victoria, 2010)10:

o Tourism Victoria is the State’s tourism commission. It is a government statutory authority

which works to promote Victoria as a tourism destination;

10
Cf. 8
Prof. dr. Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld
Is Cultural Sustainability an attainable Goal? Andrea Borzì

o Cultural Tourism Industry Group is the peak body for Victoria’s cultural attractions: it is a
volunteer organization, was created in 1994. Its members include large and small, private and
government-funded arts, cultural and heritage organizations.
o Arts Victoria is the Government body that advises and implements arts policy and develops the
arts and cultural industries;
o Victoria Major Events Corporations targets and attracts major cultural events to Victoria that
generate tourism visitation and feature Victoria’s cultural infrastructure;
o Victoria Tourism Industry Council is recognized as the peak policy council for tourism
businesses in Victoria: it collects the interests of government and of the private sector through a
united approach.

However, Allen et al. (2005) argue that the presence of several organisations could be a risk. As a
matter of fact, it could have as consequence a lack of an overall design during the implementation
of the policy. A possible solution, proposed by the authors, is to create a system that gives the
possibility of sharing information. A way to achieve this aim is, according to the authors, to have
regular meetings but also share some members of the organisation. This last point means that the
bodies should have some members in common (Allen et al 2005).11

2.3. Target Markets

Target segmentation is very important for implementing best policies. Victoria, for example,
focuses its attention on interstate sector. Analysts have divided targets in some principal segments.
Roy Market Researchers have identified Socially Aware and Creative Opinion Leaders as the key
sector. The former are those “defined by their community-minded idealistic and progressive
mindset”12 (p. 10; Tourism Victoria, 2010). The latter group regards creative people. They are
important because, once visited a destination, they generate positive word of mouth. Both, usually,
take part in cultural and heritage activities, such as events and festivals (Tourism Victoria, 2000)13.

11
Allen, J.,O’Toole, W., Mc Donnell, I. Harris, R. (2005) Festival and Special Event Management, 3rd
Ed., Sydney: John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd.
12
Tourism Victoria (2010), “Victoria’s Arts, Theatre & Cultural Heritage Tourism Action Plan”, p. 10
Available on-line: http://www.tourism.vic.gov.au/images/stories/Documents/StrategiesandPlans/Arts-
theatre-cultural-heritage-plan-2010-to-2014.pdf [Accessed: 28/04/2011]
13
Tourism Victoria (2000) Domestic Market segmentation Online:
http://www.asc.vic.edu.au/tossol/documents/tourism_demographics.pdf [Accessed: 30/04/2011]
Prof. dr. Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld
Is Cultural Sustainability an attainable Goal? Andrea Borzì

3. Swot Analysis

Strengths Weakness

• Leadership positioning • The plan is not integrated with “Heritage

• Many stakeholders involved Council” activities to promote Victoria’s
• Complete planning cultural heritage

Opportunity Threat

• To exploit acquired art resources to • Museums and art galleries become

enhance local cultural heritage “placeless”.
• Emerging markets • Too many stakeholders involved

As concerns weakness, the Heritage Council works to promote public awareness of Victoria's
cultural heritage. Projects focus their attention also on communities. It could be a way to integrate
“community perspective” in tourism planning. In my opinion, the action plan also should have
included some linkages with Heritage Council’s work (Heritage Council of Victoria, 2010)14.

The opportunity and the threat are connected. In fact, as regards the opportunity, Victoria
development could exploit more acquired art resources that stay there part of the year (during
“Melbourne Winter Masterpieces”). It could be useful to enhance its local cultural heritage and for
reinforcing its positioning at the same time. Instead, if Victoria Tourism and other stakeholders do
not take advantage of this opportunity these art galleries could become placeless because they are
not linked with anything of the local culture. They could be everywhere in the world and, at the
same time, for other cities could be simpler acquire those cultural exhibitions. In this way Victoria
risks to lose its leadership position.

4. Approach Adopted

Since cultural events are part of general tourism policy, it is important that events organised are in
line with the objectives of it and with its tourist target. Therefore, how it was recognised by

14
Heritage Council of Victoria (2010) ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10 Online:
http://www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/heritage/publications-and-research/annual-reports [Accessed: 28/04/2011]
Prof. dr. Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld
Is Cultural Sustainability an attainable Goal? Andrea Borzì

Tourism Victoria (in Allen et al., 2005), when a new event or exposition is created, it should be
integrated not only with the others events organised in the same area, but also with the general
tourism product mix of the region. For this reason Victoria Tourism developed Jiagsaw campaign.
According to the related approach, every single action plan needs to be included in the general view
of the tourism policy. This intended approach is clear in logo too. Puzzle, in fact, represents the
linkages among the different sections of a long term plan.

Notwithstanding this intended approach, in the description of the plan I have noticed that, on the
one hand, many stakeholders (at different levels) works together but, on the other hand, the local
community is not enough involved in this action plan. The latter should also enhance local culture
both for improving visitors’ experience, like I wrote before, but also for social reasons, such as
social cohesion. It is clearly identifiable its importance.

At last, we can say that there is a gap between intended approach and realised approach. The
intended approach could be also “bottom-up”. Instead the realised approach is undoubtedly “top-
down”. This fact permits to evaluate results and to organise the promotion according to a logical
process, following the pattern of the “planning school”. Tourism processes cannot be set up in this
way because more and more authors argue that community should be involved anyway, above all in
cultural tourism. Notwithstanding these argues, about planning approach in tourism, statistics
evidence that the Victorian policy, from an economical point of view, works anyway, in fact, even
if changing some markets and renovating products, the image and brand reputation (in their targets
mindset) remains almost the same. Moreover there is no evidence that Victorian community is
against this action plans. In my opinion there has been developed alternative ways to increase
benefits to local people. These ways are the aim to create win-win solutions, and therefore avoiding
troubles. In fact, there are some papers written for employers that aim to suggest solutions to
improve social sustainability and mutual benefits with the community, such as: the request to buy
local products, to develop “training programs covering both basic skills and those necessary for
promotion, so that local people can be phased into management positions over time” and to support
local schools15. These solutions do not increase the cultural sustainability of the action plans but
improve the social sustainability and therefore the reception of local community. The further issue
could be: Is it enough?

15
Tourism Excellence, Working with Local Communities Online:
http://www.tourismexcellence.com.au/Sustainability-in-Tourism/Working-with-Local-Communities.html
[Accessed: 30/04/2011]
Prof. dr. Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld
Is Cultural Sustainability an attainable Goal? Andrea Borzì

I think that it is not enough because on the one hand it creates “win-win solutions” and develop
positive external economies but on the other hand it does not assure that local culture is enhanced.

References

Arts Victoria (2010), Cultural Tourism, On-line:

http://www.arts.vic.gov.au/Research_and_Resources/Cultural_Data/Snapshots/Cultural_Tourism
[Accessed: 29/04/2011]

Allen, J.,O’Toole, W., Mc Donnell, I. Harris, R. (2005) Festival and Special Event Management,
3rd
Ed., Sydney: John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd.

Greffe, X., (2005), Culture and Local Development, Paris: OECD Publishing

Heritage Council of Victoria (2010) ANNUAL REPORT 2009/10 Online:

http://www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/heritage/publications-and-research/annual-reports [Accessed:
28/04/2011]

OECD, (2009), The Impact of Culture on Tourism. Paris: OECD Publishing; Online:
http://www.em.gov.lv/images/modules/items/OECD_Tourism_Culture.pdf [Accessed 09/05/2011]

Richards, G. (1996) Cultural Tourism in Europe. CABI, Wallingford Online: http://www.tram-

research.com/cultural_tourism_in_europe.PDF [Accessed 07/05/2011]

Tourism Excellence, Working with Local Communities Online:

http://www.tourismexcellence.com.au/Sustainability-in-Tourism/Working-with-Local-
Communities.html [Accessed: 30/04/2011]

Tourism Research Australia (2008) Regional Tourism Profiles 2007 Victoria Online:
www.tra.australia.com [Accessed: 30/04/2011]

Tourism Victoria (2000) Domestic Market segmentation Online:

http://www.asc.vic.edu.au/tossol/documents/tourism_demographics.pdf [Accessed: 30/04/2011]

Tourism Victoria (2010), “Victoria’s Arts, Theatre & Cultural Heritage Tourism Action Plan”,
Available on-line:
http://www.tourism.vic.gov.au/images/stories/Documents/StrategiesandPlans/Arts-theatre-cultural-
heritage-plan-2010-to-2014.pdf [Accessed: 28/04/2011]
Prof. dr. Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld
Is Cultural Sustainability an attainable Goal? Andrea Borzì

Tourism Victoria (2010) Market Profile Year Ending December 2009 Online:
http://www.tourism.vic.gov.au/marketing/marketing/market-segments/ [Accessed: 30/04/2011]