Tourism Australia’s chairman Geoff Dixon caused a bit of a stir this week in Australia when he said in a speech:

“To speak with one voice about Australia, especially in Asia, and to collectively sell Australia through stronger singular joint federal and state government backed campaigns would, without a doubt, be a more effective and efficient way of our doing business.”

Some interpreted this to mean that Tourism Australia wants to centralize marketing. Luke Martin, from the Tourism Industry Council Tasmania responded with

“I wouldn’t support the minute budget to promote Tasmania to be handed over to suits in Canberra and Sydney.”

O, the memories.

I understand Martin’s concern but I don’t think that’s what Dixon meant. Well, I hope not. I hope he meant that marketing activities should be better coordinated and aligned because he also said:

“On visits to China and India over the past year, two absolutely critical tourism export markets for Australia’s future, both Andrew McEvoy, Managing Director of Tourism Australia, and I were told point-blank that Australia spoke with too many voices and, tellingly, most of those voices did not have sufficient resources to make a real impact!”

So the question isn’t centralized vs. decentralized. The question is “how to better align to make marketing more effective”.

I actually think it’s perfectly ok to speak with many voices. As long as it’s not in the old fashioned, one-size-fits-all, mass media message. In 2011, every DMO should find it’s remarkable experiences to niche audiences and communicate to them in an appropriate way in whatever voice makes sense.

You don’t speak to a 30 year old surfer the same way as you speak to a 65 year old retiree who likes luxury travel. When the delivery exceeds expectations, word-of-mouth aided by social media will produce the next wave of awareness and intent to visit.