The See Australia National Tourism Initiative was launched today at Parliament House, Canberra to encourage Australians to redress the balance between their professional and personal lives and to holiday more - particularly within Australia.

The event included the unveiling of a communications campaign featuring Ernie Dingo, which will mark the first ever collaboration between the Federal, State and Territory Governments, and Tourism Council Australia and Tourism Task Force on behalf of industry to increase domestic travel and tourism in Australia.

In a first step towards nationwide collaboration, crucial support from industry has also been received from Premium Sponsors� Accor Asia Pacific and MasterCard International and Partners including AAA Tourism, Ansett (and its regional partners), Avis, Captain Cook Cruises, Hazelton Airlines, Hertz, Qantas (and its regional partners) and travel.com.au Ltd.

�The Australian travel and tourism industry last year collectively spent in excess of $200 million dollars on above-the-line marketing activities. This is the first time however that the entire industry has been presented with the opportunity to take part in a national educational campaign to encourage Australians to travel more within Australia,� Federal Minister for Sport and Tourism, Jackie Kelly explained today.

�Domestic tourists consumed over $45 billion in goods and services in 1997-98 and tourism overall directly accounted for 4.5% of GDP and employed over 513,000 persons.

�Despite tourism�s impressive contribution to the economy, domestic tourism has only been growing at a rate of less than 1% over the last ten years. Research conducted by See Australia has found that this is largely due to the fact that Australians are time poor and feel unable to balance their work and personal time.

�Whilst this initiative will have significant implications for the travel and tourism industry, it is primarily an attempt to raise awareness of the need to consider holidays as a way of breaking the routine of our daily lives in order to strengthen our health, relationships, mental well-being and efficiency to achieve an appropriate work-play balance,� Minister Kelly said.

The See Australia research found that whilst many Australians wished to take a holiday and spend time away from their daily routine, most felt restricted due to the pressures placed on them by the pace of life and change in the workplace.

�A national survey conducted by See Australia found that in the last year, 40% of people did not take any of their entitled annual leave and an additional 42% only took part of their leave. Of that 40%, 52% have not taken any holidays for more than two years and 43% have no plans to take holidays at any time in the future. The predominant reasoning is that people feel they cannot justify the time away from work ,� said See Australia CEO, Graham Perry.

�Australians have forgotten the role of holidays, in enabling them to cope better with the pace of life in the 21st century by taking a break away from their every-day lives. The result is a growing tendency for Australian workers to either stockpile their holiday allocations or neglect to plan to take holidays and subsequently place their health, relationships and workplace efficiency levels at risk.

�The See Australia initiative is an effort to encourage all Australians to review their lives and lifestyles and by so doing influence them to start viewing regular holidays as a means of achieving an appropriate balance. Holidays enable Australians to rediscover their country, their relationships and themselves and make the most of life.

�The collaboration between industry, the State and Territory Governments, the Federal Government and our sponsors will assist in raising awareness of this issue and encourage Australians to holiday within Australia,� Mr Perry said.

The See Australia National Tourism Initiative is jointly funded by Government and industry, with the Federal Government providing $8 million, the States and Territories collectively providing $4 million and industry providing an additional $4 million. These funds have been allocated to the many elements of the initiative including the communications campaign, Consumer Benefits Program, a Co-operative Marketing Program, a research and development program and the development of a new Internet site.

People interested in finding out more about the See Australia National Tourism Initiative can visit www.seeaustralia.com.au.