First it was off-shore servicing, then it was transplanting their corporate side far afield and now they’re breaking away from Tourism Australia – one has to wonder, does QANTAS still call Australia home?
For 40 years now, QANTAS has aligned itself with Tourism Australia as a globe-trotting brand advocate for everything Australian. The world over, people cannot separate QANTAS from what they know of our country – QANTAS is the flying kangaroo after all.
The logic behind this move for now appears to be related to a stoush between current QANTAS boss Alan Joyce and his predecessor (and now Tourism Australia chairman) Geoff Dixon. Joyce believes that Dixon was seeking to utilise the longstanding partnership to oust him from QANTAS and reshape the company’s board of directors.
QANTAS is a brand that has struggled to maintain its positive positioning in recent years – safety concerns, union disputes, price hikes, all of it chipping away at a once pristine image. Anyone else remember Dustin Hoffman’s QANTAS schitck in Rain Man? That was the power of this brand.
They have tried to alter their image in recent years through carious means. They’ve left their children’s choir stranded for the sake of higher order concepts such as “You’re the reason we fly”. This has yet to pay off for them, especially since it feels like such a departure from their historic Australiana-based identity.
Tourism Australia hasn’t been doing too well either. In the past few years we’ve upset other countries with Lara Bingle’s potty mouth and put too much faith into the cult of Oprah. Most believe that there hasn’t been a worthwhile ad for Australian tourism since the days when Paul Hogan was our brand ambassador.
It does take a lot of added push to convince Americans and Europeans to fly for upwards of 24 hrs just to visit our shores. Despite the best efforts of both QANTAS and tourism Australia, our international tourists continue to come from more localised markets such as China, Korea and Japan – with China being the biggest contributor over the past few years.
Reports suggest that QANTAS will now shift a portion of their $600 million annual ad spend to the state based tourism bodies. One implication of this is that QANTAS reshapes its longstanding ‘proud to be Australian’ image to suit each state. Imagine it – Naturally NSW, Totally Tasmanian, Quintessentially Queensland, you get the idea.
And what would Tourism Australia do? We have no other airline; in fact we barely have another major international tourist transport. It’s not like they could team up with P&O Cruises and put a positive spin on boat people, or could they? Anything would be more enticing than their current line of “There’s nothing like Australia”.
Our one attempt to truly brand ourselves as a nation – Baz Luhrman’s Australia was a considerable failure. In their attempt to replicate the Lord of the Rings impact on NZ tourism, Tourism Australia effectively dialled back any sophistication we had by sugar coating some the worst parts of our history.
Dixon and his alleged co-conspirators (Gerry Harvey et al) haven’t said a word. This leaves the focus is squarely on QANTAS and Mr Joyce in this situation. Given their propensity to pull a fast one in the midst of a major controversy, everyone wonders what their next move will be – grounding all flights was a classic one.
Neither side can afford to lose this partnership. Tourism Australia will be losing its only worthwhile brand advocate and QANTAS will be losing the one tie that keeps its brand standing strong throughout the world. Divided they are woeful, united they are tolerable.
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