Ross MacDiarmid has occasionally been in the wrong place at the wrong time, through no fault of his own.
He was working as the head of Ansett in Canberra when the airline went under. And January 18 saw him fighting fires on his rural leasehold in Tharwa. He – with family and friends — saved the house, but sheds, stock and fencing went.
But now he seems to be the right person in the right place. He has been the chief executive of newly named Australian Capital Tourism since MARCH 2002 (2002 MUST BE ADDED). The name change from the Canberra Tourism and Events Corporation was announced this month (June) but is yet to be formally approved by the Assembly.
It is not a change for the sake of change or a cosmetic change. The organisation wants to take the emphasis away from “events” – one in particular — and wants to concentrate on more than just Canberra. The words “Australian Capital” will embrace the region and help in marketing here and overseas.
“When I came to the job it was obvious to me that we were preoccupied with one event which was the V8 supercars,’’ he said. “While we were managing that – – and it was managed very well and it was a lot of fun being involved in — it consumed a huge amount of resources for this organisation. . . .
“While were we doing that we had no resources going into destination marketing or promotional activities. When you think about it, $19 million invested in that event over three years attracted a total number of 46,000 visitors to Canberra with some potential marginal publicity value. . . Not a very effective use of resources.”
“We have got less than a 2 per cent share of the domestic market, and a declining share of the international market of 10 per cent in 1993 to less than 4 per cent now,” he said. “And why? A lack of consistent investment and a whole change of demographic (DELETE THE WORD CHANGES) changes . We have to be so much closer to the market than we have been that we can anticipate the changes and different trends.’’
MacDiarmid wants simplicity and the basics over the long term – building on the best of what Canberra (ADD THE WORDS AND THE REGION) and the Region has already got, particularly the national attractions.
“You need to build a story about Canberra,” he said. “We should not make the same mistake as in the past, which was working on programs for just one year. You cannot build and communicate a story effectively of what Canberra and the region has to offer in one year. For example, Victoria has been running in (DELETE THE WORD IN) their ‘Jigsaw’ campaign for six to eight years. People get a heightened awareness of what a place has to offer after a long-term consistent campaign.”
He has made a start with the money left over from the V8 race which is still in the tourism budget. He hopes to show in a year’s time that the money is well-spent and should be continued.
MacDiarmid is rare among public-sector managers in saying he has enough staff. He says his team of 50 – which includes staff for the visitors’ centre – is enough for what needs to be done.
“We are a very small team but we think we have got the resources capable of delivering as long as we get a consistent level of investment,” MacDiarmid said. He doesn’t (FIX DOESN’T) use the word “funding” like most public-sector managers.
He has been in the private sector for all but 18 months of his working life.
He worked for Humes, the concrete pipes manufacturer, in Canberra from 1982 to 87. Humes was later taken over by Smorgons. He was posted to Melbourne in 1987. His wife, Penny, “nearly throttled” him. But they enjoyed 11 years there. He was general manager of Lockwood Australia from 1994-98 until his “semi mid-life crisis” brought him back to Canberra. MacDiarmid was born in Queanbeyan and his parents had a farm at Burra.
“In Melbourne I got to the stage where I was never home and I never saw the kids [four of them now aged eight to 21],” he says. “I was always travelling. And I figured there had to be something more in life.”
He joined the Chief Minister’s Department’s business-promotion section. His only public-sector job.
“It was a great education,” he says. “But I could not do it long-term. I was really impressed with the calibre of the people, but the process-orientation and politics that flows down through the organisation causes them to lose that sense of enthusiasm and willingness to take risks.”
So he moved to Ansett. And then did some consulting work before he got the tourism job.
“The thing I learnt from Smorgons is that they had a simple approach to running their businesses and it was successful because it was kept so simple,” he said. “Don’t over complicate your decision-making processes. Keep your overheads low. Encourage decision-making at lower levels. And that is what we’re trying to do here. Keep it simple and going back to basics.
“In tourism the supply chain is from research, to industry development, to marketing, to marketing events, to selling activities and then back to research. It is actually understanding what the customer needs and making sure you build up a product to their requirements, stimulating them to buy the product, selling it to them (ADD SELLING IT TO THEM) and then researching them on what their experience was. . . .
“When I took the job here we had lots of little events but there was no visitation program attached to them. So people would come here and enjoy the event – such as the (CHANGE CANBERRA TO KANGA) Kanga Cup or a conference – but they did not get to experience the breadth of Canberra (ADD AND THE REGION) and the Region. We have got to make sure that whenever people come here we get them away from the one event and get them to spend time looking at the national attractions and looking at things in the region.
“When you take the capital region which is roughly from Cootamundra to the coast and from the Southern Highlands to the Snowy Mountains, I would defy anyone to tell me that we cannot compete effectively (when we recover from the bushfires) against Tasmania, South Australia, and a substantial part of Victoria.
“We are going to concentrate on the strengths. Things that leverage off the natural advantages we have got and the national attractions.
“We just did an autumn campaign on television in Sydney. We did a pre-and post survey. Before, there was very little awareness of Canberra and its possibilities as a short-break destination. After the campaign, we found a 25 percent level of awareness. So we made an impact in the marketplace for people who say ‘Oh, I had not thought about Canberra.’
“If you are able to do that consistently over three or four years, and not just in Sydney, domestic visits will increase. The national attractions have to be a central part of that….
“You have to believe in something if you want to sell it. And I have become such a convert. Not just because I was born and raised here but because I think it is so under valued by people. I think that many people in the ACT do not appreciate the breadth and depth of what we have here and there things to do here.
“A lot of Canberra people still go away and apologise for where they live. And I know that is a bit of a generalisation which may get me into trouble, but it does concern me that we are unlike Queenslanders and Victorians who boast and stand up on a toolbox and tell everyone how great their place is.
“Being away for 11 years showed me how dramatically Canberra has changed. The private sector has had a fair bit to do with that. The fact that the private-sector employment base is greater than the public sector means that people are driving a private-sector culture. I think that has got a lot to do with what you see in terms of restaurants and nightlife. We have a great night life, but again nobody knows about it. And the restaurants here are just fantastic. When you put all that together and what the region can offer with wonderful national attractions and all the events they run, it is a great product. We have just got to get people to know about it and do a much better job in communicating and selling what we have got to offer.’’