Tourism Australia executives will travel to Shanghai to unveil the next phase of its marketing crusade in a further indication of how much it values the China market.
Fresh material surrounding its There’s nothing like Australia campaign, which includes a new broacast ad, will be first shown in China in early June. It will then be rolled out 27 countries in 17 languages.
The launch of new international campaigns has traditionally been held in Australia. But tourism leaders believe it makes marketing sense – as well as being a positive PR exercise – to unveil the next phase in a key overseas market.
Tourism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy said with current overnight spend from China visitors up 15% to $3.8 billion per year China was the “logical place” to launch the new campaign.
“Tourism Australia is focused on marketing Australia’s unique tourism attributes where the greatest tourism growth opportunities exist [and] China is a big part of that growth,” he said. “The real test and true success of any campaign is how it performs with consumers in key international markets.”
Taking the launch to China comes as Tourism Australia looks to double overnight visitor expenditure from $70 billion to $140 billion by 2020. China has the potential to generate more than $9 billion of that, McEvoy said.
While insisting that Tourism Australia would continue to support its traditional markets in the UK, US and New Zealand, McEvoy conceded the latest China push was necessary to realign its resources to the biggest growth markets.
“Chinese travellers’ strongest preference is Australia as their most desired long haul destination,” he said. “We are confident that the evolution of the campaign will continue to hit the mark in China and encourage strong visitation and spending.”
He also said domestic tourism would not be ignored, stressing it would undertake “significant campaign activity”.
Australians will also be able to see the new ad on TV, cinema and online at the same time the material is unveiled in Shanghai.
