Industry publications: are they credible?, are they read?

With the growth in the quantity and the geographical spread of the news published on the http://www.ausleisure.com and its associated websites, the recent past has seen me reflect on my role as a publisher at Australian Leisure Media along with a number of issues related to industry publications.
In compiling the latest issue, we have focussed on what we publish online and what we publish in the printed Australasian Leisure Management magazine.
We have decided that the printed magazine will focus on features, which act as an ongoing reference resource for industry professionals, with the news published in Australasian Leisure Management magazine giving a flavour of the main developments in the industry during our bi-monthly publication cycle.
In turn the http://www.ausleisure.com website is able to publish a vast amount of news on the vibrant leisure industry.
In assessing our approach to what we publish, and where we publish it, we have reaffirmed a commitment to our news, along with our features, being subject to the highest independent editorial standards.
In addition, and where necessary, we also scrutinise and question in order to equip you, our readers with the best possible information from which you can make informed decisions.
This has made us reflect on issues of quality, and the difference between our role as a publisher, rather than media that simply republishes media releases without questioning claims that may be made therein. Neither do we display partiality, only publishing what favours a particular organisation, or backing specific programs while ignoring others.
Sadly, this is not the case with other publications and online resources that claim to be representative of parts of this industry. Some won't report on what they see as being rival events, programs or initiatives – airbrushing rival organisations out of their self-centred view of the industry or promoting the work of chosen consultants and other professional service providers over others.
Then there is the role of academic and refereed publications. Having been the co-founder Routledge’s Managing Leisure journal, I am well aware of the importance of such journals. However, rather like academic orientated conferences, such journals can be driven by the contributors in order to support and justify their academic tenure, rather than whether they are actually read by anything other than a specialised audience. Because of this, such publications have an obligation to not just be accessible to fellow academics and faculty student but to the wider industry.
With that in mind it has been reassuring to see recent academic and studies orientated conferences bridge this gap. Day one of the recent three-day Sport Management of Australia and New Zealand (SMAANZ) Annual Conference featured an industry-led Sport Business Forum while next week’s Australian and New Zealand Association for Leisure Studies (ANZALS) conference will include a session on bridging the gap between academia and the industry.
While these conference developments are encouraging, when professionals read what is published online or in printed industry publications, they need to be sure that what they are reading is committed to the same standards of industry development rather than the cause of self interest.
Nigel Benton, Publisher, Australasian Leisure Management.
www.ausleisure.com

Challenging times for sports retailers

In Australia's two tier economy conventional retailing is a sector that is particularly hard pressed.
With online shopping in Australia predicted to grow at twice the speed of traditional retail in the next four years, many retailers in Australia's high streets and malls are struggling.
According to a recent report from PwC and Frost & Sullivan, almost half the $13.6 billion Australians will spend online this year will go offshore, up $2 billion to $6 billion, as consumers make a "structural shift" to online.
Explaining the report, PwC's global retail and consumer advisory leader Stuart Harker stated "large and small retailers alike are facing stronger than ever competition from digital channels, both here and overseas.
"Lower prices, convenience, greater product range and a growth in mobile devices are all factors fuelling online shopping."
Nowhere is this change being felt more than in sports retailing, where local retailers face the additional disadvantage of often being charged higher wholesale prices by local brands, manufacturers and distributors than overseas based online retailers.
Two recent examples highlight this challenge.
The first comes from across the Tasman Sea, where, earlier this month, the NZ$250 retail price of adidas' 2011 Rugby World Cup replica All Black jersey was contrasted with what US-based online retailers are charging - less than NZ$100 after currency conversion. (The full story can be read at http://www.ausleisure.com.au/default.asp?PageID=2&Display=True&ReleaseID=4412).
Closer to home, when driving my 12-year old son from football at the weekend I heard him and a friend discuss why your wouldn't buy an English Premier League replica jersey from Rebel Sport when you could order it online for less than half the cost.
In the case of the All Blacks jersey, when adidas was scrutinised by New Zealand's media, the company refused to change its pricing, even argueing that New Zealander's should loyalty to local retailers by buying locally while at the same time favouring its offshore retailers with significantly better wholesale pricing.
In this climate, the loss to Australian retailers, and the Australian economy, is considerable as, if offshore online sales were directed to Australian retailers, forecast retail sales growth in Australia for 2011 would be closer to 4.5% compared with the current forecast of 2%.
As Stuart Harker adds "the fact Australians can securely purchase a product from half way across the world, and have it delivered to their doorstep quickly and for a very competitive price, highlights the challenges that overseas online shopping presents to local retailers traditional and online alike."
PwC national digital leader John Riccio believes that the growth in online shopping demands that Australian retailers "embrace the fundamental shift in underlying business models caused by the digital revolution."
However, it may well be that even a major shift in business models will not be enough.National Retail Association (NRA) Executive Director Gary Black says Australian retailers have to compete on an "unlevel playing field" with tax and duty making local costs up to 23% higher in when compared to the same product offered by an overseas retailer.
The NRA is calling for consumers to pay a duty for goods bought overseas at delivery, a suggestion that it submitted to the Productivity Commission's recently released study into the Australian retail industry.
Black fears that without a level playing field, sales lost to overseas retailers could affect 80,000 jobs in the retail sector and cause some retailers to lose 20% of their market.
Nigel Benton, Publisher, Australasian Leisure Management.
www.ausleisure.com

New Theme Park for ….?

In the early years of publishing Australasian Leisure Management magazine, every six months or so we would learn about and then publish a news story with a headline that can best be recalled as ‘New theme park for Queensland’.
After a few years, the reality of the attractions market in south-east Queensland led us to view such news with some scepticism as these proposed theme parks never materialised, usually as a result of a lack of funds, land or adequate business planning.
In this climate, operators such as Village Roadshow Theme Parks and Dreamworld (now owned by Ardent Leisure) should be applauded for the thoughtful and adaptive way they have developed and marketed Seaworld, Warner Bros. Movie World, Wet 'n' Wild Waterworld, Dreamworld and its adjunct Whitewater World.
Even though both groups have recorded significant increases in profits for the last financial year, operating theme parks in Australia is a precarious activity suited only to south-east Queensland – as witnessed by the closure at Sydney attractions Fox Studios, Sega World and Wonderland Sydney early in the last decade.
Catering for a small (by global standards) local market, both groups have been imaginative in how they have approached their visitor market, relying, in most years, on a three way visitor split between the local south-east Queensland market, the rest of Australia and visitors from overseas.
Within these segments, they have also been flexible, shifting overseas marketing efforts between regions and countries as markets and/or economic conditions changed.
For another development to enter this market, has, as we have seen, not been possible.
With the growth of Asian leisure markets and the reach of this publication (and particularly the online industry http://www.ausleisure.com/ news service, which is updated daily), we now regularly learn about new theme park plans across Asia.
The immediacy of online news means it is tempting to publish stories about ‘New theme park for …’ cities in China, India or any other growing Asian economy. However, mindful that not all of these developments will break ground we resist publishing such news until the developments are a reality.
Yet the growth of the leisure market in Asia means a remarkable and bewildering array of new attractions are being built in Asia.
As a result, where Asians used to travel to the Gold Coast to visit Australia’s theme parks and attractions, with such attractions in their own countries, they are unlikely to do so again. Combined with the strength of the Australian dollar and the decline in domestic tourism, the attractions of the Gold Coast and indeed all of Australia, are going to have to be very imaginative in reaching new markets.
And with Asian attractions such as Singapore’s Resort World Sentosa (sited in a city that was a traditional stopover for Australians and New Zealanders travelling to Asia and beyond) attracting Australasian visitors you wonder whether Australia will ever again witness the development of another new theme park.
That this may be a reality could explain why it has been a long time since we have received any information on any new planned theme park in Queensland.
Nigel Benton is Publisher of Australasian Leisure Management.
http://www.ausleisure.com/

Little to Celebrate from the formation of new UK Sport Management Institute

The end of this week marked a significant milestone in sport and leisure management in the United Kingdom with the formation of the Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (IMSPA). The body has resulted from a merger of the former Institute for Sport, Parks and Leisure (ISPAL) [a successor to the former Institute of Leisure and Amenity Management (ILAM) and the Institute for Sport Development (ISD)] and the Institute of Sport and Recreation Management (ISRM). While the creation of a new professional organisation on the other side of the world may not appear to have much relevance to Australia or New Zealand, it is worth pointing out that professional associations and institutes, while being a vestige of the old British Empire, are alive and well in our part of the world. In addition, many of Australia or New Zealand's professional bodies in the leisure industry have often looked to the UK for guidance and, in some cases, leadership. Last week, outgoing IPSAL Chief Executive Marcus Kingwell wrote "there has been a long build up to this event but given the strong widespread support from members and stakeholders, I have no doubt that this is the right move for ISPAL and for the wider sport and physical activity sector." While the formation of IMPSA is being seen by many as a grand coming together, scratching the surface of the merger reveals a less happy picture. Ten years ago, ILAM had a membership of over 6,000 industry professionals backed by a range of resources including an industry leading, and pre-internet, information centre. It also owned ‘The Grotto’/ILAM House, a substantial country house on the banks of the River Thames near Pangbourne, which it had inherited from an earlier parks and landscape management college. However, as of its formation, IMSPA will have a membership of just 2,000 and will be located in leased office space within Loughborough University's SportPark. In terms of membership decline, it would appear that as ISPAL moved towards the formation of IMSPA and sought to be more inclusive of sport management, so those members involved in the management of attractions, culture, events, parks, venues and tourism have felt disenfranchised and left. In addition, none of the former ILAM/ISPAL staff will be moving to the new body so there will be a large hole in the collective institutional knowledge of the new organisation. According to a leading UK leisure industry commentator “with regard to the aftermath of ILAM and the ISRM, it has gone about as badly as one might have feared. “The end result of years of work and arguably millions of pounds of expenditure (if one takes into account the sale of ILAM House and the fact that ILAM's closing account will show a few hundred grand in the bank) seems to be a re-titled ISRM with a new set of trustees and a slightly revised set of objectives. “While engaged on this process both organisations shed most of their members and, judging by the conversations I've had with people across the sector, almost all the goodwill of anyone who might have considered themselves a potential member of a new organisation. “Just as the current (UK) Government's decision to send the country into economic and financial meltdown signals the end of public services, the sport, leisure and culture sector in the UK has no coherent professional voice to state its case."
Nigel Benton, Publisher, Australasian Leisure Management.
www.ausleisure.com

And the winner is … Qatar

You would have to have been living on another planet to not know that world football governing body FIFA awarded hosting of its 2022 World Cup to the Arabian Gulf nation of Qatar – the Qatari bid beating other, apparently stronger, bids from Australia, Japan, Korea and the USA. The wisdom of awarding the event to a nation with a population of less than two million with limited sporting heritage has been widely debated, as has the timing of the event: will it be held in January, during the northern hemisphere winter; or should it be held, as planned, in July, when the Qataris have pledged to deliver climate controlled stadia to counter the country’s extreme summer temperatures? Yet, Qatar’s hosting of the 2011 Asian Cup in January resulted from the event having been moved from its originally scheduled dates in July. The reason was that the Asian Football Confederation felt that playing the competition in Qatar in July would be too hot! Nigel Benton, Publisher, Australasian Leisure Management. http://www.ausleisure.com.au

While Australia makes strange some odd football decisions

Meanwhile, Australia, which will be hosting the 2015 Asian Cup, plans to stage the event in January – Australia’s hottest and, as we have just seen, most climatically challenging month! In the aftermath of the failure of Australia’s FIFA World Cup 2022 bid, many media commentators suggested that Australia’s bid failed because it was "too clean". Yet the Sydney Morning Herald recently reported that the Football Federation Australia could not account for $11 million of the $45.6 million provided by the Federal Government to help mount the bid. In addition, the FFA’s use of ‘lobbyists’ Peter Hargitay and Fedor Radmann in the bid has been questioned. Described by investigative journalist Andrew Jennings (the veteran reporter behind the BBC documentary ‘FIFA’s Dirty Secrets’) as “dirty people”, Hargitay and Radmann received in excess of $3.5 million for their consultancy services, a fee that would have risen by a further $6.5 million payment if the bid had been successful. Nigel Benton, Publisher, Australasian Leisure Management. http://www.ausleisure.com.au

A New Waterpark for Sydney

The development of a waterpark in western Sydney has been one of the perennial business challenges in the leisure industry over the last decade or so. Many organisations and consultants have investigated the potential of a western Sydney waterpark only to see their plans thwarted by the high cost of land and the limitations of returns from a probable five-month operating season.
The economics behind the recent announcement that Village Roadshow are to develop a waterpark at Sydney's Eastern Creek waterpark appears to have been made possible by Village having secured a long-term lease on NSW Government owned land that will be rezoned for recreation.
The end result, Wet'n'Wild Sydney will be an impressive attraction.
However, it is worth contrasting the backing that the NSW Government have given to Village Roadshow with the experience of Jamberoo Action Park owner Jim Eddy as he attempts to expand the water and amusement park that currently services Sydney and the Illawarra region. Eddy’s multi-million dollar development plans are currently on hold as a result of Kiama Municipal Council’s concerns over traffic issues, water management and re-zoning of rural land for a new car park.
Jim Eddy had hoped to start work on the $15 million first stage of Jamberoo’s expansion earlier this year but now sees that his plans have now been set back at least two years.
At the present time, the Council and Eddy are working together on a 'gateway process' application for the NSW Planning Minister that could see the land rezoned through amendments to Kiama's local environmental plan.
Reflecting on the process, Eddy told local media “having spent $650,000 (on legal costs) in three years (this) is starting to wear me out.
"It doesn't matter whether it's Kiama ... or wherever you are, you go through this nonsense. The planning process is a lot more complicated than it has to be. Not just for me, but for everybody."
Nigel Benton, Publisher, Australasian Leisure Management. http://www.ausleisure.com.au