The observations in this paper relate especially but not only to one massive international tourism survey. In a period of six months, that survey required eight market research companies to work closely together to find appropriate respondents. Altogether, throughout seven countries, they screened persons in 131 households to find and interview 2,345 consumers. They also conducted 232 lengthy interviews with trade people.
This paper describes the first comprehensive survey of travel conducted in the Northern Territory of Australia. As with many countries with small populations but many features of national and historical interest to travellers, tourism is very important to the Territory. Its population, although growing rapidly, is only 125,000. They occupy 1.346 million square kilometres, an average of only one person per 11 square kilometres. For this survey, it was impractical to interview visitors at their points of entry to the Territory, or departure. For reasons of time, distance, expense and sampling difficulties, it was also impracticable to interview visitors during the day at the places they visited. The only practicable possibility was to interview them in the evening or early morning at their places of accommodation. Five classes of accommodation were identified. Each presented its own sampling problem.
The results of the poster research described in this paper have been important in helping Australian marketing and media managers judge the cost-effectiveness of outdoor advertising campaigns, where formerly, they lacked the necessary information. Over the period, 1970-77, during which the three media surveys described in this paper were conducted, and two others by the Outdoor Advertising Association into public attitudes to their medium, the outdoor advertising share of Australian media budgets increased from 8.91 to 10.9%. The total value of Australian outdoor advertising in 1977 was close to $100 million.
Australian business has given serious attention to perceived consumer demands and dramatically increased its attention to problems of packaging, pollution and advertising. Market researchers are widening the scope of their work and altering their self-image. The information in this paper is based on personal interviews with marketing men and market researchers in Melbourne; a postal survey amongst a group of national companies, and the writer's personal knowledge of consumer protection in Australia gained as Chairman of a government consumer council.