Bulletin

Issue: June 2004

Research

The Murray: Working together to improve tourism

Businesses in the tourism industry along the Murray River will benefit from a La Trobe University research project aimed to make different sectors work together for their mutual benefit.

The project involves a study of the four sectors of the industry - food and beverage, accommodation, transport, and attractions - based along the river between Albury-Wodonga and Mildura.

La Trobe University Albury-Wodonga campus PhD student, Ms Clare Lade, is conducting the project with financial support from an Australian Research Council Linkages grant.

The grant was awarded to the University's Pro Vice-Chancellor (Quality Enhancement), Dr Julie Jackson, and Professor Peter Murphy of La Trobe's School of Tourism and Hospitality who are supervising Ms Lade's research.

Albury Wodonga Tourism, Albury City Council, the Sunraysia Area Consultative Committee and the Mildura Grand Hotel are also providing support.

In February, 400 questionnaires were disseminated, 100 each to local industry within the four regional centre of Albury-Wodonga, Echuca, Swan Hill and Mildura.

Ms Lade said the survey aimed to produce data to be used to strengthen and develop the local tourism industry. The data would assist in determining the potential for local tourism business cluster development, which may lead to increased economic benefits across the local industry as well as within the regions.

The survey is designed to elicit individual attitudes to, and knowledge of, cluster potential within the designated region. Additional areas to be surveyed include attitudes to competition, the significance of the Murray River, the importance of business relationships within the region, the presence of natural advantages and the role of tourism in regional economic development.

'We hope the information we elicit will mean that the various industries within each of the four areas can work together more effectively and that the four regions do not compete in a way that is detrimental to the others,' Ms Lade said.

'We aim to gather meaningful data that will assist in further developing the tourism industry. The intention is to share the findings with the participants in each of the locations to promote regional economic development,' she said.

Ms Lade knows well the area she is surveying. She comes originally from Numurkah and completed her undergraduate Bachelor of Business degree at La Trobe University Albury-Wodonga.•

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