The Golden Backpack Awards in Sydney also includes earlier on the same day the Adventure & Backpacker Industry Conference. At the 2012 ABIC, Gary Oriordan from the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) presented on Yield Management and he mentioned in passing that Hotels are moving towards seeking more direct bookings so as to rely less on agents. Then at the end of the day there was a panel discussion on commission agents retain. During that discussion it was mentioned that because there is a desire to list with every agent then margins diminish, loyalty diminishes and then the quality of the worker also diminishes. I asked the audience what are they doing to get more direct bookings and I did not get one reply. Other than a 'here here' to my comments throwing the expectation back on to the Backpacker owners/managers.