Tourism Australia encouraged by movie campaign feedback
SYDNEY – Tourism Australia’s new global destination campaign has attracted a record number of commercial partners as the industry looks to reduce the impact of the current global downturn on Australian tourism, Tourism Australia managing director, Geoff Buckley said today.
“More than 120 co-operative partners are on-board with us in around 160 separate marketing activities across 20 countries – with many of the partners coming on board in the past two months,†Buckley said.
“This is more partners than we have had for any other campaign and is testimony to the value of this unique opportunity to market Australia alongside an epic movie.
“While it is still early days for the campaign in most markets, the activities generated by these partnerships are already helping to drive bookings for Australia. This is vital if we are to avoid losing market share in the current global economic climate.
“In the UK, the partnership with Emirates achieved double digit growth in their business to Australia during January while STA Travel reported increases in both air and ground travel sales during December 2008 compared to the previous year.
“Travel agents in Hong Kong promoting adventure and romance-themed package holidays around the movie campaign have reported a 10 per cent increase in sales while in Singapore a group of travel agents have received around 900 bookings for Australia in the short time that the campaign has been running there.
“These are just a few early examples of the business created by the movie and the new campaign, which is very encouraging in light of current global economic factors.
“We will not be able to stop the global crisis impacting tourism as so much of our success is reliant on international consumer confidence. But our marketing can help keep demand stable and give our industry partners a platform from which to close the deal,†Buckley said.
Tourism Australia’s two pronged campaign – which incorporates the Baz Luhrmann produced Come Walkabout advertising campaign as well as a raft of marketing activities directly linked to the film Australia – has now rolled out across 20 markets.
Campaign partners include airlines, travel agents, wholesalers and affinity partners.
Ian Jarrett
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