A new Japanese travel show featuring Australian attractions and experiences is expected to further reinvigorate arrivals from the recovering market.
Tourism Australia is working with Japanese production firm, BS Asahi, to showcase the "top 10" experiences in Sydney, Cairns, the Gold Coast and Uluru. The four-part series is expected to reach one million viewers per episode.
The project is being funded through the Asia Marketing Fund.
Speaking at an event to welcome the production firm to Cairns, tourism minister Martin Ferguson highlighted Japan as a "priority" for the fund.
"The Japan tourism market is starting to show good growth rates, with visitation in 2012 up 6.4% on 2011," he said. "Japan remains a very important market to Australian tourism — it is our fifth largest inbound market and is currently worth $1.5 billion to our industry."
Ferguson described the "ageing" population of Japan as "cashed up" with a renewed desire to seize opportunities to explore the world post-Fukushima.
However, he insisted Australia will continue to focus on its traditional markets.
"North America is showing signs of an economic turnaround," he said, although he conceded that Europe remains problematic.
