During development of the strategic annual plan, the Board agreed that in order to meet obligations and objectives in 2010, some business structures and resources needed to be realigned. 

Shifting exchange rates over recent months have resulted in less buying power in most of Tourism Australia's major markets and these changes allow Tourism Australia to invest more of its available funding in trade and consumer marketing activities. 

This new environment means Tourism Australia has to be more flexible as an organisation – both in terms of marketing and resource allocation. In order to keep Tourism Australia's international marketing activity high and protect arrival numbers from decline, the decision has been made to close three of the smaller offices in Taiwan, Thailand and the Gulf.

Tourism Australia remains committed to these markets which will now be serviced through the regional offices in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Hong Kong.This action follows a decision to increase the role of the Shanghai office and undertake a restructure in Japan.

These changes follow what has been an ongoing shift of incrementally realigning our resources to meet challenges in the market.  We've already gone through some significant changes in the Americas and the UK and Europe have been through major restructures in the past twelve to eighteen months.

The UK, Europe and Americas offices are now operating as hub offices with their teams servicing multiple markets at a time. The plan is that the Asian operations will work on a similar model where possible.

These decisions have affected some much loved and highly respected members of Tourism Australia's team, but they are the right decisions to achieve Tourism Australia's goals.Tourism Australia is focused on getting the best return for the Australian taxpayer and tourism industry from its investment in the marketing of Australia as a destination for leisure and business travel.