IL A. 1
Pacific Area Travel Association
13th Annual Conference
March 2-6, 1964 KEYNOTE ADDRESS
by The Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Menzies, M. P.,
Prime Minister of the Common-ealth of Australia.
Well, Sir, Ladies and Gentlemen, they say that confession is good
for the soul. I wiant'to admit at once that I don't know just what
a " Keynote Address" is. I think this is an importation from the
United States of America, but I don't mind declaring the Conference
open. There I amn on the home ground as you might say. Of course,
it is a very pleasant occasion for me because when I look around
and I remember all the notes I have read and everything that the
Trade Department has told me, I realise that I ari looking at a
group of people, mary of whom might be regarded as invisible
exports, and I like this very much.
Since 1957, apart from the fact that I have been re-elected a
couple of times once rather faintly the most exciting thing
is that in 1957 the estimate of income earned in Australia from
tourist trade was œ 6 million, that is to say external money coming
in, and today it is œ 27 million. Now, of course, to some of you
who may come from larger countries that may not be any great matter,
but I venture to say that in 1957, wie were hardly contemplating
although you, Mr. Bates, were always the greatest of optimists such
a great expansion in this period of time. Of course, this is just
the beginning of it. I wonder why our figure was so small in 1957,
and of course very much smaller before that almost non-ezistent.
WThy was it? Was it because Australia had nothing to show? ' VIell,
no Australian w--ill admit that. You know that this is a land of
infinite variety. You have already experienced the glittering
sunshine of Melbourne and now you are experiencing the overcast
inftry skies of Sydney, so wie are a land of infinite variety.
17o have so much to show. Scenery, yes, masses of it, an immnense
variety. Every country is different from c-very other one and we do
not always realise there is some particular attraction for people
who come from the green landscapes of some of the counties of the
Old Country or Nev Zealand quite a pleasant change for them to see
the rather burnt, dry, yellow;, pastel shaded sweeps of country that
you find in many parts of Australia.
Variety is literally, from that point of view, the spice of life.
But I do not believe th. a: t the only thing to see, to meet, to
encounter, is the scenery. Primarily it is the people, and what
they are like, and what they do. And wie are all different people.
Many of us speak English, of a kind. And many of us do not. But
the differences of language, I think, tend to fall away a little
and people do manage to get to know each other. And I think if I
may offer a complete truism that nothing could be more remarkable
than the impact on the ordinary mind, of a visit to another country and
of moving around even for a few days or a few weeks, among other
people, sensing the atmosphere of the place, getting an impression of
what people are really likie, and above all, discovering that they
are all human beings.
This century of ours has been disfigured by prejudice and hatred
more than any other century, I believe, en record, far exceeding
in these things the iorst period of the Midile Ages. There is no
cure for prejudice half as good as getting to know the person or
race, or commnunity about which you have been prejudiced. / Now
II. A. 2
CONFERENCE
THE PT. HON. SIR ROBERT 1NZIES. M. P.
Now, Mr. Bates, the Chairman of this Conference, is of oourse the
embodiment of the tourist industry. He has been the head of the
Australian National Travol Association to which I assure him I came
well prepared to pay the warmest tribute. Indeed vie have been
paying tribute to him for years. I would be saying far less than I
should if I did not say that, in my opinion, and in the opinion of
the Government, the Australian National Travel Association is doing
magnificent wiork, and very glad I am to say that although only a
few years ago a lot of business people in Australia who I would have
expected to have 1anoun something of the significance of tourism
were rather indifferent to the needs, some conspicuous. But I am
delighted to find that since 1957, the number of private contributors
to tho travel association here has increased five times.
This is something that we are all in. There is a bit of a disposition
in my ovm country I knoi-w it doesn't exist in any of yours to t. ake
things to the Government in prayer, and say well why doesn't the
Government do something about it, and there are many things about
which the Governm-ent ought to do a great deal, but a motter of this
kind requires, in the highest degree, the co-operation of Government
and private industry, and for one very great reason. This is :. n
industry. This is a commonplace remark, but it is almost
revolutionary in my country to regard the tourist trade as an industry.
I have to go around Australia a good deal and rcceive requests of
one kind or another, and you would be surprised to kniow how frequently
one finds that people, ahen they speak of wanting an industry in their
State or in their community, wiant something that has a factory
connected with it, something that has chimney stacks, something that
has great lorries running round taking in materials and taking out
the finished product. This is the popular idea of what an industry
is, yet here we have an industry -, hich at present produces in real
terms from my own country as invisible exports the ninth largest
amount among the major export industries. It will stand very much
higher in the list as more and more iwe get to understand the
tremendous importcence of it.
There are areas in Australia w.-here the tourist trade, if it were
even more understood than it is now, could be a very great industry
and that trade could be developed out of sight, by better roads
and accommodation.
All this, I believe, is improving. But it will need to go on
improving and it will go on improving so long as the people who
provide accommodation a. nd facilities and transport in the receiving
country understand that this is one of the great national industries,
and that they must contribute to it by skill and good management,
and good capital provision, just as much as they would when they
established some modern factory to produce electronics or some other
modemn device. This is a matter of broad understanding, and so of
course you have a Conference of this kind, magnificently representative
of the countries around the Pacific, and you are here to encourage
tourism, to encourage it in every direction, particularly in your
area. I hope that nobody will fall to the comfortable and social
temptation, to be ever-polite to each other in a Conference of this
kind. The developments of tourism in the world, and particularly
in these newer parts of the world, as vie see ourselves, is dependent
upon hearty criticism. / Let us
II. A. 3
CONFERENCE
THE RT. HON. SIR ROBERT MENZIES, M. P.
Let us, in Australia let all the people who exe here who are
Australians who have some contact with some aspect of' the tourist
business understand what is wrong. They will tell you vha-t is
right. You need not worry about tha~ t. But you must tell them %-. hat
is wirong. Because there was a good deal wrong once; there is a
good deal wrong now, but it would be a miracle if there were not
still plenty of' ways in which we could improve our capacity to
roceive and deal with and entertain tourists.
When people go around the world, eaither on business, which I believe
some do, or on pleasure, which I believe some do, or on business
and pleasure, which I am sure a great number of' people do, they
are consciously or unconsciously doing something much needed in this
century. First of' all, they are extending the boundaries of' their
o,: m knowledge of' other people. I have said something about that,
and by extending those boundaries, they are breaking dovam some of' the
prejudcies and hatreds that have disfigured our tine. And in the second
place, they are extending the borders of economic co-operation with
other countries. W.. hen somebody from Japan comes over here to buy wool,
or somebody from Australia goes to Japan to buy some textiles, they
would bhoth think it rather pompous to be told they were extending the
boundaries of' economic co-operation between the tw,, o countries.
One says, " I em here to buy wool", and the other says, " Well, I am~
here to buy textiles". But as they are intelligent people, and
I assume that they are, they will realise tha t what they are doing
is dealing with one facet of a whole complex of' an economic co-operation
between two nations two-way trade. All the economic and financial
considerations that are involved, in two-way trade, and this of' course
is a tremendously valuable thing where people have business dealings
together, where everything has become completely normal in their
context, where they have learned to trust each other, and have had
years of' honourable dealing with each other, the chances of'
hostilities between them, I believe, are sensibly diminished
and therefore this trade which I shall call the tourist trade for this
purpose is of' tremendous importance as a. remover of sources of
international friction. Similarly, on the political side, suppose
you have somebody who visits another country in the Pacific area,
with all sorts of preconceived ideas. He may be there purely on a
holiday but he has time to move around to see people, to do a Little
reading about what goes on if he has the language of the country
that he goes to to acquire some friendships, to find out wrhat the
local man thinks about the local man which is always so important
and he comes backc even after a relatively brief' journey with his
mind enriched. There is one thing that must be said about all of
as when we travel ( unless it is exclusively on business) one thing to
be said about us when wie get homie vie are not silent about where rie
have been. I have yet to meet a taciturn tourist, and now that we all
have expensive cameras, the tourist goes and he sees and records
and he comes back ( and in this case " he" includes " she") and in due course
we tell our neighbours and vie tell our friends about it so
incessantly that run serious risks of' losing their friendship.
This is a secondary effect of travel. Not only does the tourist
himself' learn something and have something to remember, but other
people through them will learn something and will want to go and want
to see for themselves.
Now this is in our time, I believe, a. magnificent social international
revolution. Nothing better could be going on, socially, politically,
economically. All this travel that you are encouraging for which
so many of your constituent members are providing all of' this is
I believe one of' the civilising influences in the modern world.
Allen I
II. A. 4
CONFERENCE THE RT. HON. SIR ROBERT TENWZIES, M. P.
V. hen I was a snail boy it was considered a phenomnnal thing for
anybody to move into another state on a visit. V. e were parochial,
but today with all the facilities of transport, with all the
revolution that has gone on, assuming we can pay the fare, we have
no excuse for riot travelling. The average man and woman today is
immeasureably better able to pay for some travel than their
grandparents ever thought of being. Therefore there is opportunity,
Pand in the case of our ovm country, thousands and thousands of
people coming in, and thousands and thousands of people going out,
all engaged, whether they realise it or not, in this ameliorative
work in relation to our contacts with other countries.
This is a Conference of enormous importance. The industry will
continue more and more to produce these great results if there is
more and more and more co-operation between all those particular
segments which go to make up this complex or to serve it-, and
governmcnts, more and more co-operation, more and more understanding,
and ( above all) more and more completely frank criticism of what
we see . nd what goes on.
I hope that from this Conference as from all the others you have
had you will, on the basis of a riost frank examination of
what goes wrong here or there, come out with an improved organisation,
with an improved prospect of serving the people, because first
and last let it be remembered that this is not just a source of pleasure,
Sir, in declaring the Conference open.