Asia Marketing Fund looks beyond China

Asia Marketing Fund looks beyond China
By admin


Tourism Australia will inject a further $8.5 million into China and the wider Asia region as it draws the first tranche of cash from the Asia Marketing Fund.

Around $850,000 will be channelled into research to help the industry better understand travellers from Asia while cash will also be spent on promoting Australia in second tier Chinese cities and bolstering Tourism Australia’s cooperative marketing with airlines.

Full details of the $8.5 million spend in year one of the Asia Marketing Fund will be unveiled tomorrow.

Tourism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy, fresh from announcing a $9 million tie-up with China Southern Airlines this week, told Travel Today the wider Asia region will benefit, including Japan, Korea, Indonesia, India, Singapore and Malaysia.

“There will be an element of China for sure but there is such good potential elsewhere,” he said.

Indonesia has grown “unbelievably” while India is “simmering away” despite the lack of capacity to Australia.

Meanwhile, Singapore and Malaysia, while mature markets, still have untapped potential, McEvoy said, with AirAsia X and Scoot launching direct services to Australia.

“Japan is also coming back and we want to do something to stimulate that,” McEvoy said. “This fund is more than just China. There’s an ability to work with airlines, low cost and legacy, to grow numbers out of the region generally.”

The Asia Marketing Fund was designed to placate tourism industry anger over the $8 increase to the Passenger Movement Charge.

Tourism Australia is expected to receive around $48 million over four years, while money has also been pledged to help regional tourism.

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