(traveller's Check)
The Age
Saturday February 13, 1993
Form guide WHAT difference will it make to your next holiday if Brand A (insert party of choice) beats Brand B in the federal election? The inescapable conclusion is, that under the Liberals' GST, you'll get slugged 15 per cent extra for just about everything: bus, train and air fares, accommodation, hire cars and tours.
The trouble is that, whereas a stereo might end up being cheaper when sales tax is swapped for the GST, most of the components of your average holiday attract little or no tax under the current regime.
One of the few bright spots in the travel picture, should the Liberals win, is that Fightback exempts international flights and holidays from GST.
On the other hand, domestic travel and holiday packages would be subject to the tax from its introduction on 1 October next year, meaning that a discount return air fare of, say, $190 from Melbourne to Sydney would rise to about $220, while a typical Cairns return fare of $480 would rise to $550.
In fact, if the domestic airlines were to pass on the tax to consumers _ and there's no reason why they won't, as their cheapest discounts are already below cost _ the benefits of deregulation, under which average fares paid have fallen about 20 per cent, would be all but neutralised.
The only area of domestic travel that would benefit from the GST is the do-it-yourself holiday _ by car, with tent. The abolition of the fuel excise, even with the GST on top, would cut the cost of petrol by 19 cents a litre _ about $11 for the average tankful.
Labor, meanwhile, reckons it has already done the hard work in making travel cheaper: deregulation of the domestic airline system, which has cut average fares paid by about 20 per cent, with some discounts costing just a fraction of the old rates.
The only glitch in the works is the Australian airports system, still a Government monopoly that makes it difficult for new airlines to get themselves established.
Coincidentally, the day after last week's item here about the difficulty Compass was having with terminal space at Coolangatta, the Transport Minister, Senator Collins, announced that the Government would provide money to build new common-user terminals at Coolangatta, Sydney and Melbourne _ but the first of them won't be ready for 16 months at the earliest.
Backdown WE hear the big two domestic airlines were inundated with complaints after they abolished one-way advance-purchase fares, which were widely used by corporate travellers (Traveller's Check, 30 January). The complaints turned to cancellations this week when Compass published one-way discount fares for the first time.
By Wednesday, both Ansett and Australian had reintroduced one-way discounts _ $119 for a seven-day advance purchase on the Melbourne- Sydney route, for example, with no minimum stay-away period and flexibility in changing bookings. The Compass fare is $120.
Compass, meanwhile, has abolished its off-peak fares, which were just under its unrestricted business and economy fares. It says the off- peak fares were confusing and most people preferred the cheaper, advance-purchase discounts anyway.
Discovering Japan THE myth: Japan is one, big, dirty city 1600 kilometres long, full of dull, industrious people who work 12 hours a day and never have fun and don't even think of going there _ everything is outrageously expensive.
The reality: Japanese cities are clean, safe (far safer than Melbourne after dark) and relatively unpolluted; outside of the cities, the countryside is beautiful _ from snowcaps and alpine lakes to open farmland; the Japanese people do work long hours and, by our standards, live in shoeboxes, but they are irresistibly charming and play as hard as they work; and it is possible to get around the country without breaking the bank.
In the years after World War Two, Japan was desperate to promote its tourism potential to get badly-needed foreign exchange. Now, as the wealthiest country in the Asia-Pacific region, its foreign exchange reserves are overflowing to the point of embarrassment.
But the Japan National Tourist Organisation, even with a budget that is only a fraction of the money the Australian Tourist Commission has to spend, has embarked on a campaign to attract foreign tourists for a different reason.
With Japanese foreign investment rising in the US, Australia and Europe, and its massive balance-of-payments advantage threatening to start trade wars, racism against the Japanese is also on the rise.
The best way to combat racism, the Japanese figure, is to combat the ignorance that creates it. The visitor will quickly discover that the modern Japan has little to do with the redneck Shogun culture that tried to overrun the Pacific 50 years ago.
The JNTO has taken into account all the myths and difficulties involved in attracting visitors and has produced a vast range of brochures and handbooks that cover almost everything: rail passes, budget accommodation and travel within Japan, maps, an easy-to-use Japanese-English phrasebook and details of an English-language phone- help service for travellers in Japan.
You can get the full bag of tricks from JNTO's Sydney office (022324522), which can also refer you to travel agents that specialise in Japan. On price, it will pay to shop around. Most tours, including accommodation, air fare and some with rail passes, are in the $1500- $2500 range. There are up to five air services a day from Australia to Japan with All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines and Qantas. North-West also flies to Osaka from Sydney en route to New York.
Make sure you get a package that gets you out of town. Don't just go to Tokyo, which is almost single-handedly responsible for Japan's reputation for lethal prices.
It is also possible to construct your own holiday, using a cheap fare from a discount agent (starting from about $1100 return) and budget Japanese-style accommodation (JNTO has details) from about $40 per person per day.
Oh, and the food ... if you love Japanese tucker, you'll be in paradise! And make sure you try the trains: for service, speed and efficiency, they make V-Line look Stone Age.
© 1993 The Age
