In the late 1980s, when the Japanese tourism boom to Australia was taking off, tourism operators in Australia went to great lengths to cater for the needs of these nouveau rich of Asia. Hotels on the Gold Coast had most to gain. They threw out many of their double beds and replaced them with twin beds because that’s what Japanese couples preferred; they put Japanese-speaking staff in the lobby, Japanese food on the menus, slippers in the rooms, and complimentary green tea on the dressing table. Around the streets of Surfers Paradise, Japanese restaurants were built and free-spirited young working-holiday Japanese kids hired to serve. Shops and duty-free stores put up Japanese-language shop signage and hired the same Japanese kids to tout for business. For Japanese visitors to the Gold Coast, the Japanisation of Australia’s most famous resort made travel very comfortable indeed.

How it now makes the rest of Asia feel is less certain. Now that the Japanese travel to Australia has matured, Australia is looking toward the rest of Asia to pick “up the slack”. If the Australian tourism industry is to maximise the benefits accruing from the Asian boom, the lessons from the Japanisation process must be heeded.

I am not arguing that we should give up on the Japanese visitor and turn our attention to other, faster growing markets. Even given that the days of the big spending Japanese tourists are long gone, the Japanese still spend more per person on travel in Australia than any other nationality. Though the travelling rich of such countries as Indonesia and Thailand are narrowing the gap in terms of shopping expenditure each year, the overwhelming volume of Japanese visitors relative to other visitors is still so large that Japan is still the critical market for many tourism operators.

My main concern is that so much money has been spent and resources expended to satisfy the needs of the Japanese tourist over the past 10 or so years that, for a variety of reasons, many operators may not be able to make the adjustments necessary to satisfy the needs of other Asian tourists. Cultural sensitivity on the part of Australians in the tourism industry will become more important than ever before. The Japanese were one people and many Australians could speak Japanese; arguably, it was easier to learn about, and deal with, the Japanese. Now we have a situation where there are rapidly growing numbers from several Asian countries, none of which whose language is widely spoken in Australia. In other words, Australians are now faced with not one learning curve but several, and all are rather steep.

One inevitable tendency for Australian tourism providers operating in the international market will be to use Japanese travellers as a benchmark for dealing with other Asian visitors. This is dangerous. Sure there are similarities, such as (1) the tendency for group rather than individual travel; (2) the general desire for luxury and brand-name shopping experiences, and (3) the disinclination to give direct feedback to the service provider about service quality.

But the differences are many. These include: (1) the ability and the desire to speak English (Indonesians as compared to Koreans); (2) eating patterns based on cultural or religious factors (Indonesians in particular); (3) level of adventurous, independent spirit (Koreans are more adventurous than Japanese), (4) degree of overall overseas travel experience (Koreans and Thais compared to Japanese), (5) consumer expectations and demands about overseas travel (Koreans and Taiwanese compared to Thais), (6) the structure of travel agent industry (ease and way of doing business with the travel trade in Indonesia versus in Korea), (7) the degree to which the overseas travel market is consumer or trade driven - Indonesian is trade driven, Korean is price driven, and Japanese is increasingly consumer driven, and (8) different travelling patterns, including such things as type of accommodation desired (luxury or budget hotels, or condos), holiday or visiting friends & relatives (VFR) traffic (especially from Indonesia), seasonality due to different school holiday calendars, as well as shopping behaviour (big or moderate spenders).

Cultural sensitivity is not just about how we as Australians relate to Asians. It is about being sensitive to how Asians relate to each other. The most obvious example is the delicate and complex relationship Japan has with the rest of Asia. The abundance of Japanese signage in Surfers Paradise is unlikely to be viewed with casual indifference by, for example, Korean travellers, our fastest growing market. We can only hazard a guess at how other nationalities from Asia view the enormous amount of Japanese that confronts them in Queensland - and Sydney for that matter.

The Australian tourism industry faces three challenges that need to be addressed if the benefits from rapidly growing Asian tourism market are to be maximised. First, the Australian tourism industry must provide an Australian experience to our Asian visitors - not an Asianised version. This is not as easy as it sounds. For example, Australia is popular among many Asians because we offer a western experience. But how do we successfully balance the promotion of Australia as a uniquely western experience on one hand, and yet emphasise our Asianness and utilise our Asian-Australian population at the same time, as a recent government report has urged (see “Productive Diversity in the Tourism Industry - Capitalising on the Language and Cultural Skills of Australians of non-English speaking backgrounds” published by the Office of Multicultural Affairs)?

Second, tourism operators and the Australian community in general have to appreciate the differences between (as well as within) Asian cultures. We are just beginning to learn that all Japanese travellers are not the same. It is as foolhardy to generalise across Asian cultures as it is to generalise across western societies. Most Australians would resent being viewed being the same as Americans. The same no doubt applies for Thais being compared to Japanese or Indonesians being compared to Taiwanese.

Third, we must learn about the needs and characteristics of our Asian neighbours who visit us. Many people in the tourism industry still lack a real understanding of the Japanese market. Our knowledge of the emerging markets of Korea, Indonesia and Thailand is dismal. Perhaps the Australians with ethnic backgrounds from these countries can be utilised to educate Australians in these matters.

Australia is, arguably, the western country that has benefited most from the Asian economic boom and the resultant dramatic increase in overseas travel from Asia. We have a head start on the competition to attract Asians to our shores. It is up to the tourism policy makers and industry leaders to ensure that our competitive advantage is maximised. Appreciating the differences among Asians should be essential part of that strategy. We at least know our Asian customers better than our European and North American competitors. They have not yet woken up to the economic potential of the Asian traveller. When they do, however, Australia better be ready.