A new global partnership will see the country’s tourism body aim to bring in travellers who aren’t #notatourist.
Tourism Australia has struck a new deal with Visa, kicking off a three year union that will involve using Visa’s Cross Border #notatourist campaign to show off why ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’.
Both parties will begin work in the Asia Pacific region to extend promotions highlighting Australia’s food and wine offerings, as well as the unique coastal and aquatic experiences, driving the message through banking partners, travel partners and merchants to convert interest into dollar dollar bills.
“Across all of our target markets Australia is a ‘must-see’ destination, and high yielding international travellers have been responding very well to our global consumer marketing campaign, ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’,” Tourism Australia’s managing director John O’Sullivan said.
“We are now increasingly working with partners to better target international travellers and make sure we turn the interest our campaigns create into tourism’s contribution to the Australian economy.”
Key target markets in the Asia Pacific region include China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Japan and South Korea.
Tourism Australia and Visa have also agreed to share research and insights that will assist in understanding the consumer, enabling the partners to effectively target inbound travellers and track campaign activity as well as measure patterns and key spend categories in Australia.
Visa’s Cross Border campaign, #notatourist, complements Tourism Australia’s strength in social media marketing and the agency’s goal to get visitors out exploring all of Australia.
“Visa’s Not a Tourist campaign is designed to engage those that are looking for authentic local experiences,” Visa Inc’s group exec for Asia Pacific Chris Clark said.
“We will be providing local knowledge to travellers to help them explore destinations beyond the regular tourist sites, with our platform enabling them to be ambassadors or tour guides for their favourite travel spots.”
“Visa’s breadth of acceptance, security and other convenient benefits ensures travellers can make the most of opportunities and unique experiences they seek during their travel.”
And while we’re talking about exploring more of the country, Western Australia is keen to get its fingers in the Visa pie, especially after visitor figures sagged in this week’s International Visitor Survey.
O’Sullivan has said that Western Australia is likely to feature as part of Tourism Australia’s new #notatourist campaign with Visa, part of an effort to get tourists beyond the eastern seaboard.
The Australian Hotels Association noted there was an unfair disparity in the kind of ‘Australia’ being promoted to the world.
“WA tourism is being held back by low level State Government funding and too much focus by the national Tourism Australia on bringing tourists to the east coast,” AHA’s CEO Bradley Woods said.
“Attracting tourists that see the east coast of Australia as too far but would easily travel to WA, is the new market opportunity. In addition focussing on repeat visitation and ensuring people don’t leave WA off their itineraries is good news.
“Western Australia has massive tourism potential but at the moment it’s far from being realised.
“Tourism is widely recognised as Australia’s new growth sector. If we want to create more jobs and career opportunities for tourism in WA, we need to spend more money on marketing at a state level and ensuring we’re not left behind at a national level.”
O’Sullivan added that as the partnership commences in China, the highest value inbound market, millennial travellers will be a big focus.
“The Visa #notatourist message speaks strongly to this audience, encouraging young Chinese travellers to get off the beaten path and experience Australia as locals, not just as tourists,” he said.
China is currently Australia’s largest inbound market in terms of visitor spend with Chinese visitor expenditure reaching $7 billion (12 months ending June 2015), up 32% from the previous year.
