According to the national Tourism Futures/Roy Morgan tourism industry survey, the idea of combining marketing for Australia and New Zealand has seen significant support from Australia.

Polled in the lead up to the Tourism Futures conference, 34% of industry executives backed the idea, while 16% also supported joint promotion with Pacific Islands.

“Australia and New Zealand are complementary destinations rather than competitive destinations,” said Tourism Futures convenor, Tony Charters.

“Australia can’t do glaciers and Fjord-lands, New Zealand can’t do deserts and outback experiences. Maori culture is quite unique as is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. We share many common elements – language, lifestyle, food and wine – but even those apparent similarities are quite distinctive once you take a closer look.”

Both Australia and New Zealand have new leadership with Andrew McEvoy and Kevin Bowler leading respectively which Charters hopes will allow for a new era of co-operation.

“It could include marketing, quality standards, training standards and relaxation of border controls, as is seen in the ASEAN situation,” said Charters.