Policy Advice
Sound policy depends on robust advice and authorities analysis of evidence. Researchers at GIFT use a wide range of tools and methods to deliver tourism policy analysis, strategic advice, tourism planning and management input, tourism forecasting and demand modelling and analysis of productivity and the labour market, including the role of new technologies and digital disruption.
Australia's China Visa Policy
Chinese visitors are an important source of tourist revenue for Australia, accounting for 20% of all international expenditure. This project investigates changes to the Chinese visitor visa fee and the impacts on the Australian economy.
The innovation in this analysis is the use of a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Australian economy, which explicitly incorporates the tourism sectors. The justification for the modelling approach is well argued and the discussion of the simulation results, as well as the policy implications, are competently carried out.
Lead researcher: Dr Tien Pham
Bhutan
With the support of DFAT, Associate Professor Tien Pham is working with the Tourism Council of Bhutan to provide technical assistance and advice on constructing a Tourism Satellite Account model for Bhutan. The purpose of the project is to build a TSA team, transfer skills and develop a suitable TSA model.
Visitor visas for Asian visitors
Tourism Accommodation Australia (TAA) commissioned GIFT to systematically compare visa charges and processing times in a select number of Asian markets to understand Australia’s competitiveness. Given wide differences in individual visa schemes of all destinations, the report classified those schemes into four broad visitor visa types for side-by-side comparisons. These are Approved Destination Status (ADS) visitor visa; standard visitor visa; transit visa; and working holiday visa.
The work found that, whilst not being the best, Australia is amongst the most competitive destinations from the processing perspective.