Overplaying the indigenous card – why the demand for ‘Aboriginal’ tourism is not being met

A few weeks ago, I was in Queensland, Australia. I had a spare day and picked up a leaflet for an Aboriginal guided tour in the rainforest.

It sounded pretty good – promising plenty of explanation about traditional uses of flora and fauna, plus a cultural aspect.

Demand for Aboriginal tourism

It’s exactly the sort of product that many visitors to Australia want. There’s a enormous amount of interest in the original inhabitants of the great southern continent. Most travellers in the country know very little about the indigenous Australians, and there’s huge demand for ‘Aboriginal’ tourist products.

Alas, the tour turned out to be crushingly disappointing. On the plus side, the tour guide was an indigenous Australian, and she belonged to the traditional landowners of the area we covered.

On the minus side, that was pretty much it. It turned out to be an $80 bushwalk to a relatively nice waterfall. There’s no way I would have paid for that if I’d have known what it really was beforehand.

Lack of training

This wasn’t a case of dishonesty – more lack of training and research into what customers expect.

Our guide clearly meant well; she just wasn’t suited to her new job. Up until the turn of the year, she was working in an entirely different industry, and was offered the position by friends and family involved in the company.

To be fair, she did briefly explain what some plants were used for by her people. But it was tell, not show, and past not present. She was trotting off a script that betrayed a lack of knowledge about her own people’s customs. Anyone who had been given the same script and had a few plants pointed out to them could have done the same job.

It’s the difference between saying “our ancestors used this tree to make firesticks” and demonstrating how a firestick is used. Alas, it was the former, and only for around ten minutes before a largely silent two hour trek through pretty but not awe-inspiring countryside.

Calling it ‘Aboriginal’ is not enough

I think it’s fair to say that this isn’t want people want. They want history, they want stories, they want to understand more. And they want to get the impression that the person explaining all this knows what they’re talking about. Sadly, I suspect our guide had never tried anything she was trying to explain. It’s not just a poor product, but a golden opportunity missed.

It’s not enough to just slap the words ‘Aboriginal’ and ‘indigenous’ over something. I was born in Nottingham of Anglo-Saxon stock, but I wouldn’t dream of running an Anglo-Saxon heritage and cultural tour there. There has to be something more than just ethnic background.

Unfortunately, this tour isn’t the only poor indigenous tourism product in Australia (or indeed worldwide). There are plenty of others that, on the whole, leave the paying punters feeling underwhelmed and feeling no more knowledgeable than when they first set out.

Part of this is due to a (largely commendable) urge to create jobs and fulfil tourist demand. But it has to be approached a different way – the knowledge and the passion needs to be there, not just a vague wish to capitalise on a growth trend.

Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, culture, Queensland, rainforest, Travel Industry