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The East is not all East

Roo on the run

Paying for an item at checkout in a shop in Adelaide, I asked the cashier, “You closing at 5pm?"

"Yes," she replied, "and that’s long enough."

In this South Australian city, they have their priorities right – you shouldn’t have to work longer than you ought to – whereas in all of Asia, we work harder than we should or ought to.

It was a Sunday after all and we were told we were lucky to find shops open on that day. In the past, they would have been closed – so even Adelaide is moving ahead with the times.

There’s much that has changed in Australian tourism – the Chinese have become the new Japanese and the rest of the Asian market travelling to Australia has matured from groups to FITs to more active, do-it-yourself travellers.

I met a Thai tour operator who had just completed a self-drive holiday from Melbourne to Adelaide and her eyes were sparkling from the adventure. "I was so scared at first and then, wow, it was fun. We can’t drive like this in Thailand," she told me.

Well-decorated booths within ATE

The change in markets and customer segments is evident in the composition of the buyers and media attending this year’s Australian Tourism Exchange, the annual travel trade event put on by Tourism Australia.

They even have a Eastern and Western module at this event, which I found really quaint. The East do their own thing while the West does theirs, and the two worlds come together during one evening when we in the East say goodbye and they in the West say hello.

I guess I understand this from an organisational perspective – a tourism board sees its world by geographic markets and its staff are assigned by markets. You look after the East and I look after the West, kind of thing.

And I suppose maybe Australian suppliers do that too for I am told that those who look after Western markets come in with the arrival of Western buyers and media while those in charge of the East fly out when we do.

So it makes sense to divide the world into East and West and organise the event accordingly.

And let me tell you, Tourism Australia has got ATE down to a fine art – the organisation is impressive.

Media needs are well taken care of – staff to look after us, computers at our disposal, wi-fi everywhere, our own media boxes, a suitcase for us to lug materials around, a box for us to ship materials home – although we were told only paper allowed. Perhaps in the past, they’d found sheepskin rugs or stuffed koalas in there.

The extremely well-organised media centre

From a customer’s perspective though, I wonder if tourism has become a lot more sophisticated than this "East is East and West is West" approach for you have to agree there are so many shades in East and West these days that sometimes you don’t know where one begins and the other ends.

By clumping people into East and West, you run the risk of either dumbing down to the lowest common denominator or pitching too high that you lose everybody else, so more often, the former happens.

Our media group was made up of mostly Chinese, a handful of Japanese, a couple of Indians and a sprinkling from South-east Asia. On the first evening of our module, we were given a tour of the Central Market by a local celebrity chef, Mark Gleeson.

Tick. Eastern people love their food.

It was fun, Gleeson made the tour come alive with his twinkling eyes and stories. Everything is the best in Adelaide, he said – oysters, seafood, wines, cheese, honey – and everything comes from around here. We had a taste of each. (View videos below)

We were then taken to a bar called Sangria to taste not Spanish wines but South Australian wines.

Tick. Eastern people, especially the younger ones, are getting into wines. South Australia is responsible for 60% of Australia’s wine exports, we are told.

A tram on the go

Dinner was at a Chinese restaurant called Concubine.

Tick. Eastern people must have their rice or noodles, although they may not necessarily be into concubines.

During one briefing, we were asked to let our hosts know if they were speaking too fast for us. "We can slow down," we were told.

My fear is if they slow down any further in Adelaide …

I know, I am being unkind and probably unfair and it’s really not in the Eastern nature to be ungracious guests, so I do apologise humbly for any offence I may have caused in this article.

My mother would be so ashamed of me. Sometimes, I don’t even know what colour I am but thing is, I think our customers are getting that way too.

There’s a growing segment of customers who are travelling by interests that cut across colour or creed and out of respect to my elders, I quote Confucius – "Men's natures are alike, it is their habits that carry them far apart."

And isn’t it tourism’s ultimate purpose to bring us closer together by habits, not drive us apart by colour?

• Photos and videos courtesy of Yeoh Siew Hoon

Beautifully written Siew Hoon and I think that we all hope that with ATE returning to Sydney next year that the East/West divide will cease and we will capture the original spirit of ATE when east in fact met west under the one roof. You are very correct that Singaporeans and Thais are to be found driving vans across Australia, just as much as Germans and English are likely to be found on organised package tours. The demarcations are far-reduced these days and the world of travel is better for it. ATE is superbly organised by Tourism Australia, but bringing the east and west together will add to the buzz and intensity of the event and really capture what Australia has to offer ALL tourists, irrespective of source. Sydney is used to catering for events of 5000+ delegates at the one time, so ATE as one event should be a breeze. Look forward to seeing you then!

Interesting juxta viewpoint when we are all now into specialisation right down to individual preferences and going way beyond just being sensitive to cultural issues. I do believe you have a more intense experience when it is shared with someone for whom it is new.

Good observation Siew Hoon, as usual. I was not at the ATE and being a regular, do really miss the many friends I have made over the years. I think the East West separation also involves the suppliers/exhibitors. Some only specialise on handling traffic from the East, some only from the West. As some of us in the East already promote more Western style holidays, maybe there could be a day of overlap.

Siew, your diplomatically worded article and Peter Hook's comment sum up the artificiality and arbitrariness of ATE's east-west split. I agree travellers' tastes and propensities are less and less defined by their geographic origins. So I hope Peter is correct that Sydney, with more extensive hotel and meeting facilities than Adelaide, will see east and west coalescing to a greater extent than at recent ATEs.
But there is one point that needs to be acknowledged. ATE organisers say that dividng the event into two enables much wider participation by both buyers and sellers within the confines of finite convention facilities.
I think it's possible to agree philosophically with you and Peter while also accepting that aiming for the widest possible participation is a laudable ambition.
If we accept that, any division of buyers will be arbitrary and it could be fairly argued that dividing them into east and west is more satisfactory than doing it, say, alphabetically.
It's a solution that advantages small sellers with specialist product aimed at specific markets while not disadvantaging larger mainstream sellers who have a presence at both or buyers who see all the mainstream sellers plus boutique operators who might otherwise have been excluded.
However, while there's logic to that, it doesn't completely satisfy people like you and Peter (and me!) who feel it lacks the 'je ne sais quoi' that would be generated by the cross fertilisation of a single diverse melting pot of an ATE ... Roll on ATE 2011 in Sydney!
PS: I think your mother would have been proud of you for making your points so graciously and with such obviously constructive intent.