TA reiterates power of social media

Tourism Australia has signalled that social media will continue to play a pivotal role in its marketing approach, as it seeks to highlight Australia's "difference".

Speaking at the launch of Sydney Harbour as the 16th National Landscape yesterday, managing director McEvoy identified word of mouth as "the most powerful tool we have".

"What has changed is the digital and social media environment," he said.

But he was confident that Australia was well-placed to benefit from the growing trend, with more than 4 million Facebook fans and similar success on other networking platforms.

"They're telling deep and intense stories about the destinations, they're sharing imagery," he said. "We now have probably 23 million Australians and a world of people that want to Advocate on our behalf."

McEvoy stressed that simply projecting images of iconic destinations was no longer enough to capture the interest of the modern traveller.

"We need to bring to life what is the deeper story," he said, pointing to the National Landscapes Program as a way of doing this. "The world travels to experience difference, and we have that in spades."

The tourism body last week released a series of guidelines for tourism business to capitalise on the social media trend.