04 May 2021
An expert panel has been formed to provide advice to the federal government and the tourism industry to help drive its economic recovery from COVID-19.
The five-member panel will provide advice on the visitor economy, which encompasses domestic and international tourism, including international students, business and leisure travellers, business and major events, and short-term overseas workers, as well as associated industries such as hospitality, aviation and accommodation.
Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Dan Tehan said,
Martin Ferguson (pictured above), who is currently chair of Tourism Accommodation Australia (TAA) and Clare Valley Wine & Grape Association, has been appointed to lead the ‘Reimagining the Visitor Economy Expert Panel’ over the next six months.
Public sector bodies need to focus on strategic issues in their use of cloud services, writes Steve Boardman, solution director at Rackspace
A consensus has emerged that things are likely to be different in a lot of ways for the public sector when the Covid-19 pandemic has subsided – and that is going to have implications for its use of cloud systems.
This fed into a number of ideas at our recent UKA Live discussion, involving myself, Rob McNally, head of IT strategy and solutions at Leeds City Digital Partnership, Martin Ferguson, policy research director at public sector IT association Socitm, Colonel MC Cornell, assistant head of Army Digital Services and UKAuthority publisher Helen Olsen.
UKAuthority
Cloud – public, private and hybrid – played a huge part in the public sector’s Covid response, as it quickly developed and launched services to support the people most in need. With budgets set to tighten, how will the sector continue its digital transformation journey and what role can cloud play?
Cloud services provide a way forward, building and scaling new services at speed while getting the most for taxpayers’ money. To be successful this will need a strong understanding of what the industry can offer, the shifting dynamics of public and private clouds and in-house digital estates, and the regulatory environment. As the discussion identifies, this requires not just knowledge and skills, but a willingness to continually look to change and modernise the way services are delivered.