Bingle delivers the goods!
With many outspoken critics of Tourism Australia’s controversial “Where the Bloody Hell Are You” campaign featuring Lara Bingle, including a number of State Governments, in particular New South Wales and Queensland denouncing the campaign a failure, statistics released yesterday say that the campaign has generated an extra $1.8 billion tourism dollars last year, with tourist spend topping $14 billion.
The Australian Tourism Export Council says though that the increase was due to increased spending and longer stays rather than a massive boost in tourist numbers, which the Australian Tourism Council says is a cause for concern.
Tourism Australia said the results indicated the advertising campaign was meeting its primary objectives of increasing tourism spending and the amount of time tourists spend here.
Tourism Australia Chairman Tim Fischer said the results would not have been as strong if the campaign was not controversial, adding, “The advertising campaign has shown real progress.” “If in fact it had not been a controversial campaign we suspect that the numbers of tourists would not have held up and tourism spending would have decreased.”
According to the statistics released, the average time tourists spent in Australia increased by 3.6 nights or 14 per cent on the previous year, with backpackers spending an extra $482 million dollars than the previous year, with Tourism Minister Fran Bailey saying that the results demonstrated the campaign was beginning to cut through, adding, “Backpackers injected $2.8 billion in Australia last year, this is money directly spent in local shops, pubs and hotels.” “Backpackers also visit throughout Australia, injecting millions into regional communities.”
Irrespective of the report, the State Governments are expected to continue to criticise the campaign.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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