Business Research - PEST Analysis

Australian State & Federal Government websites are all active publishers of information and therefore relevant sources for information to incorporate in your PEST Analysis. Parliaments or legislatures, ministries or agencies are typically responsible for regulating activity related to business, between businesses and between the various government entities and businesses. Both state and federal governments are responsible for producing and administering law and regulation that govern sales, marketing, transportation regulation, employment conditions, employee safety, operating licenses and codes or practise for the Tourism industry. Government at both the federal and the state level may fund industry organisations who consult with the industry at large and as a consequence produce positioning statements and other advocacy and initiatives.  

• Investigating the political side of an industry requires locating government information by searching through governmental websites (see below).

• Note that useful information can be in many forms: policy, regulation, government initiatives, government spending, committees and associated reports to name a few of the types of information required to develop a picture of the political context within which an industry operates.

• More than one source may be required to build a detailed understanding.
   

See more guidance on the page, "Finding Government Information & Publications" in addition to the resources provided on this page.

 

• Department of Innovation, Tourism & Sport (QLD) - This is a Queensland Government department responsible for economic strategy, industry stimulation, and infrastructure and planning in Queensland. 
   
• Tourism and Events Queensland - Tourism and Events Queensland is the Queensland Government's lead marketing, experience development and major events agency, representing the state's tourism and events industries. TEQ includes a range of excellent resources on the terminology used in the tourism sector see this glossary of terms for useful background information on the industry.
   
• Tourism Research Australia (National) - Tourism Research Australia is a branch within Austrade. The TRA website provides access to many top quality reports - look for: State of the Industry reports, forecast, employment figures.
   
• AUSTRADE (National) - The Australian Trade and Investment Commission is the Australian Government's trade and investment body. As of 2020/2021 this website will have much information on initiatives for the recovery and necessary operating adjustments of the tourism industry in the pandemic-era.
   
• Tourism Australia (National) - This website is predominantly focused upon marketing and public relations, however, other valuable information maybe gleaned from the website - annual reports, strategy documents, statistics etc. these documents will have relevant information about markets, strategy and initiatives at a national level. Effective searching will incorporate a web search engine to mine the website for information (see preamble above). See this page here for current COVID-19 industry sector support packages.
   
• Australian Tourism Industry Council - Australian Tourism Industry Council (ATIC) is the national representative body for tourism. The role of ATIC is to provide leadership and industry representation through a national voice for tourism, and to manage national industry development programs.
   
• UNWTO - The World Tourism Organization is the United Nations specialized agency entrusted with the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. See also the UNWTO portal for global tourism statistics and resources.
   
• Productivity Commission - The Productivity Commission is the Australian Government's principal review and advisory body on microeconomic policy, regulation and a range of other social and environmental issues. The Productivity Commission is affiliated with the Treasury and provides the Government advice on microeconomic policy. For the purposes of a PEST analysis the Productivity Commission website will provide reports and research on the tourism sector that include the size of the workforce, industry structure and geographic composition. Be wary of the currency of the information and consider the information as ripe for further research on associated topics in other sources. The search facility on this website provide useful categories to filter results according to: regulation, policy, competition and many other areas of PC activity.
   
• The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications - Infrastructure is a current going concern at the moment due the current prevailing economic conditions surrounding COVID-19 and particular industry sectors such as Tourism that rely upon infrastructure as a background enabling investment. The Australian government has announced certain interventions to support Australia's national carrier amongst other stimulus inputs into the sector as a whole. See also the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics for transport data as inputs for analysis.
   
• Australian Government -  Provides access to Australian Government publications and information. This will take the form of budget statements, committee documents and other parliamentary materials. Consider this as an ancillary source to more conventional types of business reports, the information obtained may only be useful if you have sufficient context around the process from which it is generated and may require additional consideration in light of other information you already have.
   
• Analysis & Policy Observatory | APO -  APO aggregates policy, reports and publications from across the public sector. The information on this website might also highlight policy recommendations or social research. This resource is particular useful for supplemental policy commentary and research with many publications combining quantitative (numerical) and qualitative (focus groups/questionaire) data.
   
• Australian Public Affairs Fulltext (APAFT) (via Informit) QUT Library Database -  This resource is a library database. APAFT consists of aggregated content that consists primarily of editorials, opinion pieces, essays and other articles from Australian magazines and professional journals covering political, economic, legal, social and cultural affairs. Use the search tool provided in the database to retrieve information: be mindful of the date when the information was published, consider the type of information returned from your searches, formulating keywords and combinations of keywords to use in the search tool will be vital to usable results for your analysis.
   
• Data.gov.au - Data.gov.au is the central source of Australian open government data. Anyone can access the anonymised public data published by federal, state and local government agencies.In addition to government data, you can also find publicly-funded research data and datasets from private institutions that are in the public interest. The site has over 30,000 publicly available datasets from a range of departments and agencies.
   
• Ministerial Websites - Though the information on ministerial websites will be largely announcements, media releases and records of appearances and interviews, ministerial websites can provide clues and cues as to policy direction and initiatives. The information on these sites would not form the most important information for your analysis - consider this variety of source as supplemental or incidental information. See here for the most recent announcement of the aviation/tourism stimulus - the primary communications of policy and stimulus measures are often via ministerial media releases. Queensland ministerial websites will also feature similar announcements.

• Australian Bureau of Statistics - Australia’s national statistical agency. Look for thematic or topical surveys by searching the website. Labour statistics are available at occupation level via quarterly reports - search for these by name on the ABS site for more information on employment data reporting see here.
   
• Reserve Bank of Australia - the RBA website has a range of pages which provide statistical summaries as snapshots. 
   
• QLD Government Publications & Data - Go to the central source - both data and publications across a variety of sites will be available through this website.
   
• Department of the Treasury (Australian Government) - The Treasury is the Australian Government ministerial department responsible for economic policy, fiscal policy, market regulation, and the Australian federal budget. The treasury website hosts information on and for business and industry alongside submissions from various industry and business stakeholders in the lead up to each budget.
   
• CEDA - Formed in 1960 by one of Australia's foremost economists, Sir Douglas Copland, CEDA's purpose is harness the ideas and influence of leading thinkers from business, government, community and academia. Start with the pages providing research and policy - these will be most useful in defining current and future economic directions. Look for the CEDA series, "Economic & Political Outlook".
   
• OECD iLibrary - OECD features eBooks, articles, working papers, reports, and statistics. Note this resource is a subscribed service and requires you to login with your QUT login credentials.
   
• OECD Data - provides many statistical series based on topic .
   
• OECD - facilitates discovery of publications and data by country and topic. Start early with this source as there may be some investment of time required to orient yourself to the available tools and publications on the website. Look for the report series, 'OECD Tourism Trends and Policies', this series provides information for around 51 countries and various sub-regions with snapshots of individual countries.
   
• Business Council of Australia - An industry organisation representing Australia’s largest employers, advocating for policy on behalf of the business community and Australians employed by business enterprises.
   
• ABI/INFORM collection (via ProQuest) QUT Library Database - Key database for business, economics and information systems providing access to journal articles, working papers, business and industry news plus country and industry focused reports. 
   

• Passport (QUT Library Database) - A market research database with reports and data on industries, economies and consumers internationally. Published by Euromonitor International. An excellent source of trend data for price, consumption and trade data for a variety of industries.
   
• EIU Country Data (QUT Library Database) - Useful for forecast macro-economics indicators for Australia, the Asia-Pacific region and all other locales globally.
   
• MarketLine (QUT Library Database) - Public company, industry and country information extending across over 200 countries and every major industry sector. PESTLE analyses are available under Analysis - Countries & Cities - Country Profiles.
   
• IBISWorld (QUT Library Database)  - Key statistics and analysis on market characteristics, operating conditions, current and historical performance, a five-year forecast and major industry participants. Industry level reports are available for tourism and travel.
   
• Factiva (QUT Library Database) - Australian and international newspapers and journals plus global company information. Extensive company information is provided, including financial data for more than 42,500 worldwide companies (from Reuters Investor) as well as access to historical market data and interactive charting. Tip: filter your search upon subject and publication - targeting national newspapers for more in depth commentary and analysis. More guidance available via the QUT Library.

• Tourism & Events Queensland - Many websites and portlets such as TEQ will disseminate information on research initiatives. Take time to investigate what is on offer particularly if there are resources aimed at capacity building or supporting local operators.
   
• Queensland Statisticians Office - Gauge local population and demographic trends. Interrogate the website for other indicators relevant to the business environment in QLD.
   
• World Values Survey - Start at the linked page and follow the website cues for Australia. The linked data files are in Excel format, however, the accompanying documentation on methodology and the administered questionnaire will be vital to unpack the data.
   
• Australian Bureau of Statistics - Australia’s national statistical agency.The ABS provide a wide array of social data. Look for thematic or topical surveys by searching the website.
   
• Informit - QUT Library Database - Australian journals and magazines covering areas including business, engineering, science and health plus humanities and education as well as extensive coverage of Indigenous affairs. Take a look at TVNews for recordings of video news reportage as a way to look for policy announcements, government press conferences - To search just this collection: enter your search terms and then choose TVNews from the Products filter in the database this directs your search towards videos in the TVNews collection under this database.
   
• UNWTO - a leading international organization in the field of tourism, the United Nations World Tourism Organization promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability. 
   
• McCrindle - Commercial social research with a business and markets research. Reports from McCrindle will typically pair approaches to developing marketing and communications by scanning the business environment in certain sectors. McCrindle often publishes content under other website domains other than its own domain. As a usable example of this take a look at this website: https://australiancommunities.com.au/ alongside media material on the McCrindle Insight blog.

• World Economic Forum - Start by searching for reports on travel and tourism. The reports provided on the website will tend focus on broader issues or topics and so may be used to gauge industry directions and trends globally.
   
• IBISWorld - QUT Library Database - Key statistics and analysis on market characteristics, operating conditions, current and historical performance, a five-year forecast and major industry participants. Industry level reports are available for tourism and travel. Take note of the sector drivers and disruptors within the reports themselves - these may appear as smaller sections of information, however, the factors identified in the report will prove invaluable for keywords or terms to use in follow-up searches particularly in conventional library sources: books and journal articles.
   
• Economics Working Papers - Working Papers in economics are pre-publication versions of technical papers, academic articles, book chapters, or reviews. Authors may release working papers to share ideas or to receive feedback on their work.
   
• Subject-specific journals (Tourism) -  target these journals in the QUT Library using appropriate keywords to gauge emerging trends and new approaches to business practise. The linked search provided here supplies a substantial list to investigate. Choose a specific title and search with synonyms associated with the term, 'technology' or other topics related to the PEST framework - there may not be a singular term that returns all possible viable articles you may need to change the terms you are using. Consult the Journals page on this libguide here to see a curated list of journals from which you can retrieve articles.
   
• Books - Start from a collection of quality curated materials available from the library. This form of information might be used as a type of reference material from issue focused editions to broader focused titles, another good reason to use the library search is to follow-up on topics in the form of keywords from reports and information you may have retrieved from prior searches.
   
• Google Scholar -  Google indexes a considerable volume of scholarly material in a similar manner to the QUT Library search. Access to the material often requires following up with QUT Library Search to access the fulltext of the items you have found or alternatively connecting Scholar to the QUT Library. Using the large search infrastructure of Alphabet it is very easy to locate relevant academic information. The suitability of the results will depend on your search strategy so be sure to consider the key terms and phrases you are using.