Skift Take
This is a blow to national tourism marketing organizations worldwide -- including our own BrandUSA -- and could spur a rethink worldwide on how to fund tourism promotion.
Tourism Australia, the main tourism promotion body for Australia and one of the most creative and progressive of national tourism boards anywhere in the world, is in danger of losing half its funding and could even cease to exist, if a sweeping report from the country's Commission of Audit, which was charged with bringing national spending under control, comes into effect.
The main sections of the report call for selling assets and cutting public spending to rein in Australia's debt burden. As part of that the report proposes huge cuts to the federal public services including the abolition of seven bodies and the merging of 35 others. Tourism Australia is part of that, which gets about AUD $130 million (USD $121 million) in yearly funding, and
