I was recently invited by an American friend, Dr. Stuart Rosenfeld, to think about collaboration on creative economies. Among other things, he’s a Board member of South Arts, a creative arts network covering nine states – Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
I readily agreed on the proviso that any collaboration should extend to both the creative AND tourism industries because of their complementarity. There were also other timely reasons:
- cultural tourism is the fastest growing segment of the tourism market, and has a high spend value
- the Australian tourism market is flat, and Tourism Australia is looking for new markets. And we figured the Yanks are in the same boat
- Qantas now has Dallas as its main US hub – a great gateway to the relatively untapped southern US market. Qantas and the US carriers surely want to drum up two-way business
- in March, the Australian Government announced a Creative Arts Program $235 million and a Precincts Clusters Program $500 million for 10 precincts, with a creative arts precinct a distinct possibility.
We thus decided that the planets were in alignment. But, as always, the solution lies in finding the stakeholders with the vision and commitment to make something happen. It seems smart to think of Sydney as the Aussie precinct connected to counterparts in the USA. After all it’s the main entry point for US artists and tourists, and there are two precincts forming around University Technology Sydney, and Walsh Bay – the Rocks.
But Melbourne and other places have equally long and proud histories in the creative industries and strong international links. In any case, it’s our rural regions that appeal most to international tourists – disparate places like Bendigo, Katoomba, Broken Hill, Tamworth, Gladstone, Alice Springs, Cape York, Broome etc. The dilemma is that while the regions have cultural tourism product, much of it is under-developed and hard to get to – regional airfares outside the main trunk routes are crippling, and you’d be loathe to recommend most of our train services to international tourists.
But let’s not dwell on the negatives. We have some fascinating cultural tourism agendas that might form the basis of relationships with cities and towns in southern USA – New Orleans, Dallas, Memphis, Nashville, Houston and Miami come to mind.
We’ve fired off a discussion paper for Dr. Rosenfeld for his next Board meeting. The first hurdle is to get arts administrators thinking tourism, and tourism administrators thinking arts. The second hurdle is to get US tourism/arts administrators engaging with their Australian counterparts, and then somehow connecting their regional cousins into the agenda. The third hurdle is to market the opportunity. On this score, we’ve suggested engaging some champions once things take shape e.g. Harry Connick Jnr. (New Orleans) and Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban (Nashville).
The above scenarios are somewhat speculative, and it involves a lot of cat-herding and people looking to someone else to arrange things. If it doesn’t pan out with our American friends, we might see if there are cultural tourism links back to Italy for Griffith, Mareeba and Leichhardt, or to South Africa in the case of Perth. We’ve found a federal program to defray expenses – so please contact us if this aligns with your interests.
More bang for our buck
Our Gippsland correspondent says that a government official should be like a pianist in a house of ill repute – a facilitator at the lowest and most personal level, not a participant on a grand scale.
He’s right of course, but the problem is that most federal officials at least aren’t even in the same neighbourhood.
Food for thought – fewer officials will be needed to administer federal programs post-September. So why not put some of the surplus officials into Action Teams to work on development projects with companies and local/state officials? Some of these federal officials could be very handy on a piano, or a violin or guitar. More bang for our buck.
Shadow Ministers soon in the sun
Interesting to reflect on the Shadow Ministers who will be running the country in an Abbott Government. Here is a quick take on some – more next month.
Malcolm Turnbull (Communications) – will aim for a scaled back NBN wherever possible e.g. a fibre-to-the-node VDSL network, utilising Telstra’s existing copper network. Lots of fireworks.
Julie Bishop (Foreign Affairs & Trade) – this field is her passion. She is capable and will do a good job.
Kevin Andrews (Families and Community Services) – solid background in this field, traditional Catholic and family values. Expect radical changes.
Greg Hunt (Environment) – will oversee a drastic downsizing and reshaping of this portfolio. A rising star.
Joe Hockey (Treasurer) – my bet is he won’t last 18 months. His personal skills will be used to better effect elsewhere.
Ian Macfarlane (Resources & Energy) – a seamless transition because he was a very good minister in the Howard Government and knows the issues.
Rod Brown is a Canberra-based consultant and lobbyist specialising in industry/regional development, investment attraction and clusters, and accessing federal grants. He also runs the Cockatoo Network.
Phone: (02) 6231 7261 or 0412 922 559
Email: apdcockatoo@iprimus.com.au
Blog: www.investmentinnovation.wordpress.com (750 articles)
