tourism australia advertisements

Tourism Australia launches new ad to lure international visitors ahead of borders opening

By Lucia Hawley | 2 years ago

Tourism Australia has launched a major international campaign to entice tourists back ahead of border openings.

The ad marks the first big international tourism campaign in two years and is set to the catchy slogan "Don't go small. Go Australia".

Phillipa Harrison, managing director of Tourism Australia, discussed the move on Weekend Today, calling it "a moment we have been waiting for for two years."

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Australia's reopening to international travellers

Harrison reflected on the strain COVID-19 had put on people's lives and, more specifically, on international tourism, saying, "People have been living smaller lives during the pandemic."

The campaign slogan was quipped off that — aiming to attract visitors back to Australia — with Harrison remarking, "What better way to go big than go to Australia?"

The ad showcases a slew of beautiful Aussie travel destinations including the Northern Territory, Sydney Harbour and the Great Barrier Reef.

"It's about showcasing the incredible diversity and the incredible experiences that are here in Australian," Harrison says, jokingly adding the "hardest part" of her job was deciding on which destinations to include as there are so many to choose from.

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Since the pandemic placed travel plans on pause, there has been a pent-up demand from tourists who are busting to get back into Australia. Harrison said employees within Tourism Australia have reported call volumes have tripled.

The Australian Government has announced borders will finally be opening up to the world this month, with fully-vaccinated international arrivals allowed to enter Australia from February 21, 2022.

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Tourism Australia launches $5 million week-long advertising blitz

A week-long tourism advertising blitz will kick off across the country, aimed at getting Australians to book their next domestic holiday and boost visitation to those regions that need it the most.

The $5 million marketing push is the first major activation of Tourism Australia’s Holiday Here This Year campaign for 2021 and aims to inspire people to take a well-deserved break and provide much-needed support to tourism operators and communities around the country.

Tourism minister Dan Tehan says the campaign was part of the Morrison Government’s ongoing support for the tourism industry.

“We want Australians to get excited about holidaying in Australia,” Tehan says.

“Our country is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world and this year is an opportunity for Australians to discover why.

“This nation-wide advertising blitz will inspire Australians to plan and book their next domestic getaway in the weeks and months ahead.

“Domestic tourism is worth $100 billion to the Australian economy and our tourism industry supports more than 621,000 local jobs.

“My message to every Australian is do yourself a favour and start planning your next holiday in Australia because you’ll have the time of your life and you’ll also be supporting a lot of Australian jobs and businesses.”

Tourism Australian managing director Phillipa Harrison says that with many Australians returning to work, now was the perfect time to provide them with the inspiration and ideas to book their next holiday.

“Summer is typically the busiest time for our tourism industry, with many operators relying on the revenue generated during this period to support them throughout the year. But as a result of the challenges that we’ve continued to face across the country, for many tourism businesses this holiday season unfortunately hasn’t gone to plan so far,” Harrison says.

“Despite the recent disruptions, consumer confidence remains high with many Australians keen to take a break and get out and explore their own backyard. This campaign is all about capitalising on this pent-up demand by providing those people with all the content and inspiration they need to convert this desire and yearning for a holiday into actual bookings.

“We’re calling on people to make the most of the remaining weeks of summer and experience some of our incredible tourism offerings and in doing so, help give back to operators and communities across the country who need our support more than ever.”

The campaign, which runs from January 31 to February 6 has been developed with Tourism Australia's creative agency M&C Saatchi and media agency UM.

It is the latest burst of activity as part of Tourism Australia’s ongoing domestic marketing initiative Holiday Here This Year, which aims to stimulate demand throughout the sector by getting Australians travelling safely across the country and booking holiday experiences.

It will feature Australian destinations, tourism products and experiences, including areas impacted by last summer’s bushfires.

Tourism Australia chief marketing officer Susan Coghill says the campaign taps into strong consumer sentiment to travel domestically.

“Even though there have been some disruptions to travel during the summer holiday period, which is typically the busiest time of year for so many tourism businesses, we know Australians are still keen to travel with more than half planning to take a domestic trip in the next six months," Coghill says.

“This week-long marketing push is aimed at inspiring Australians to take a well-deserved break by reminding them of all the incredible tourism experiences Australia has to offer across multiple media channels and in turn provide much needed support to tourism businesses across the country.”

The week of activity combines event sponsorships, publisher created content and in-program editorial integration as well as national advertising running across key television programs, online and print, and 2,500 outdoor ads.

As part of the nation-wide initiative, Tourism Australia is also encouraging the industry to coordinate an aligned advertising push across their own marketing and social media channels during the same period.

According to data from Nielsen Ad Intel, Australian’s are embracing exploration of their own backyards.

Those living in the capital cities are opting to stay within their state, with a preference for 'other' areas above main cities.

A quarter (25%) of those in Sydney intend to travel within NSW, 18% of those in Melbourne intend to travel within Victoria, and 28% of those in Brisbane intend to travel within Queensland.

Contributing to these backyard adventures is the major push by Australian domestic tourism authorities in the second half of 2020.

In May to October 2020 Australian domestic tourism authorities had an estimated $24 million in advertising spend, a 28% increase compared to the previous six months.

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Tourism Australia launches new campaign

A new national tourism campaign will launch this week to bring international tourism back down under.

The ad will focus on iconic Australian locations like the Great Barrier Reef, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Uluru.

The campaign will feature the slogan 'Dont Go Small - Go Australia.'

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Analysis: Susan Coghill Unpacks Tourism Australia’s Biggest Ad Since 2016

On the eve of Tourism Australia’s most robust campaign since 2016, and arguably its most important ever, Australia’s peak tourism body’s CMO Susan Coghill sat down with B&T’s editor-in-chief David Hovenden to unpack the rigour that went behind the new Come and Say G’day effort.

The great thing about all Tourism Australia campaigns is that they are immediately critiqued by the entire nation. Indeed, if it weren’t for Australian’s ardour about the peak tourism body’s work we might never had heard of Scottie from Marketing. From Lara Bingle’s much maligned Where the Bloody Hell Are You through to the lauded and free work from Paul Hogan OG Come and say G’day, Australian’s have been deeply obsessed with how we trey and entice the rest of the world to pay us a visit.

Ultimately, what Australian’s think of the campaign is of little real importance. Rather whether we can see our visitation numbers from high-spending markets is all that matters.

As I sit in Tourism Australia’s temporary offices’ boardroom the Friday before they all head to New York to make Australia’s great pitch to the world, the most obvious thing is that the room has been turned into a ‘war room’. Campaign flows, schedules and activations line three of the rooms four walls. A lot of work and thought has clearly gone into this campaign. Australia’s tax payers may not be happy with the outcome, but they can’t accuse the campaign of being flippantly constructed.

In 2020 as Tourism Australia faced into the pandemic, it had four streams of work to focus on. Pivoting to domestic was the first and most urgent of these. Of course, each state and territory in Australia has its own tourist board attracting people to their state, so rather than duplicating effort, Tourism Australia looked to where there would be market failure.

“We focused on how we get domestic travellers to travel like our international travellers do when they visit. It’s human nature when you travel locally, you travel in a slightly different way,” explains Coghill.

“You probably spend less, you do less, you don’t go as far and so on. We were encouraging Australians to go farther, take those epic trips, pay for experiences … You’ll spend the 30 euros to get a photo with the Centurion at the Colosseum, for example, but when you’re closer to home, you just don’t do those things. There’s a tendency to flop and drop. That was the backbone of the domestic campaign [to reverse that bahaviour] and having talent like Hamish and Zoey was wonderful,” she said.

It was perfectly designed for the domestic market. And, in fact, that campaign was the only Effies winner in two years in travel and tourism.

Apart from the domestic emergency, Tourism Australia also worked on keeping the dream alive overseas so people could at least hope they’d one day come to Australia.

However, in many ways, the most important thing Tourism Australia did during the pandemic was extensive foundational research. “We wanted to make sure that we had the right data and insights to understand our consumers around the world. We wanted to bring some rigour to how we do our strategic planning, we borrowed frameworks from other categories. If you think about how consumer packaged goods has had a 100-year history plus of brand management, there’s real clear rules and laws of growth, if you will, that the the big brands know how to pull in and leverage to grow the brands.”

Don’t reinvent the wheel

So TA looked at how FMCGs research. How they measure growth. And then applied those same methodologies to tourism. Full funnel analysis, competitor analysis. Really understanding who’s getting the business at what point. Where countries were getting bookings? Where does Australia compare and compete?

“How do we compare on a market-by-market basis? Destination driver choice, and not just why they choose Australia, but why you choose any long-haul destination . . . how our competition compares market by market,” Coghill explains.

This isn’t the first time Tourism Australia has put good research to use. In America, for example, Australia had high awareness, high consideration, but relatively low intent at that point in time. Working with Droga5, Tourism Australia created the Dundee Campaign and used the Super Bowl to basically open hearts and minds of consumers, but also used a fully integrated campaign to measure the conversion. So impressive was it, Professor Mark Ritson broke it down.

Off the back of this research, the fourth piece of work Tourism Australia did during Covid was develop a new campaign that answered the post bushfire and (hopefully) post pandemic world. How did Australia reinsert itself in the hearts and minds of overseas consumers?

And this all came about in a moment of extreme competition. There’s fewer travellers to fight over for a start. People are staying closer to home which is a challenge for Australia as a long-haul destination. Airline capacity hasn’t rebounded fully yet. And while there are still concerns around Covid, it has slightly pulled back and it’s a little more about what might happen if there’s a recession. “There’s been a flip from health to wealth concerns” says Coghill.

“There’s more competition for us for that high-yielding traveller that we target than ever. If the pandemic did anything for tourism, it really woke up countries around the world to the value of tourism. So, you’ve seen countries go in and invest more in national tourism bodies, getting bigger budgets, but also being more creative than they ever have been.”

The fundamental job for Tourism Australia remains the same: being top of mind in consideration. “Human brains are lazy. They will shorthand things. So making sure that were top of mind, that we’re the top two or three destinations is really important.”

How are we going to meet the moment?

This is Tourism Australia’s first proper global campaign since 2016? Dundee was for the US, Matesong was for the UK.

“It does mean that we’re telling our story in a slightly different way. When you go with one country, you can go deep on that shared cultural context, but we felt that when the borders were opening, when travel is recovering, it’s important that we put our arms around the whole world welcoming them,” says Coghill.

In a typical year pre-crisis, TA would be doing brand activity in three or four markets at most. And in some years like with Dundee or Matesong, it was decided by TA go heavy in one market at the expense of others. This year, TA has been granted enough money to do proper brand marketing in nine markets.

October is an interesting sweet spot for Western and Eastern markets. For Western markets, it’s good priming time in the lead up to peak booking period in January (the dark, cold winter). In Asian markets, it’s good in the lead up to planning trips for Chinese New Year and other New Year holidays across the region.

“Consistent year-round activity is about making sure we win in consideration. And then of course, while this is a brand campaign, we don’t transact, so we have to make sure that we bring on amazing conversion partners: travel agents, online travel agents, airline partners.

We have thought through the customer journey all the way. We talked about brand activity across all these markets,” says Coghill.

Tomorrow B&T will delve into the mechanics of the campaign itself. Stay tuned.

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Tourism Australia unveils new TV advertisment

TOURISM Australia has unveiled its new television commercial featuring a jingle tourism chiefs feel captures the Australian spirit.

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TOURISM Australia has unveiled its new television commercial featuring a jingle tourism chiefs believe captures the Australian spirit.

The one-and-a-half-minute ad features lifeguards, an Aboriginal elder, and buskers singing along to the song Nothing Like Australia - created by the Melbourne musician behind the 1990s dance hit Addicted to Base Josh Abrahams.

“There’s nothing like the people here,” they sing. “Where everyone’s ya mate.”

In one scene an Asian family is seen driving through a field of kangaroos singing: "There's nothing like these furry things that bounce around in herds."

Tourism Australia marketing manager Nick Baker said the commercial, which will be screened internationally, was about capturing the Australian spirit “with fun and with humour”. "All the people who appear in this sing in a way that captures the Australian spirit with fun and with humour,'' he said. "You will see a pilot going over Sydney Harbour singing and the captain of a ferry coming over from Manly. "We have used song to bring the whole thing together.”

Mr Baker said market research found more than 90 per cent of Australians who had seen the commercial felt proud and emotionally engaged. The ad features strong references to Qantas's I Still Call Australia Home commercials, and features a grand finale with fireworks exploding above the Sydney Opera House.

It is the brainchild of Michael Gracey, who directed Hugh Jackman's recent Lipton Ice Tea commercial and YouTube's two most-watched advertising campaigns, the Evian Roller Babies and T-Mobile.

Tourism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy said the commercials would be played during the FIFA Fanfest in Sydney and Melbourne.

"Maybe people will start singing along and make it a bit of an anthem for Australia,'' he said.

"Australia is a really simple idea for the world so we should be good at communicating it simply.''

A competition in Tourism Australia's There's Nothing Like Australia campaign, created by DDB in Sydney, has already seen more than 30,000 photos taken by Australians uploaded to Tourism Australia's website.

The best photos submitted feature on a mosaic map of Australia on the There's Nothing Like Australia website this morning.

People will be able to use the map to search destinations and experiences and plan their holiday.

Find out more about the Tourism Australia campaign here

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He was left semi-unconscious with severe injuries just hours after arriving in the major city.

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The tragic reason an Australian woman was in Bali before suffering catastrophic injuries in a horror accident has been revealed.

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Home » News » Australia turns itself into a gift shop as part of ‘Holiday Here This Year’ campaign

Australia turns itself into a gift shop as part of ‘Holiday Here This Year’ campaign

Tourism Australia has begun rolling out a new activation as part of its ‘Holiday Here This Year’ campaign that has essentially turned the country into a gift shop for domestic travel experiences.

‘Holiday Gifting’ is all about inspiring those Aussies who can afford it to give the gift of travel this holiday season to help support tourism operators and communities across the country during what is typically their busiest period.

Over the 2019/20 holiday period (December and January), Australians took 16.4 million domestic overnight leisure trips, spending a total of $12.8 billion, according to Tourism Research Australia.

This represents 18 per cent of total overnight leisure trips for the year and 20 per cent of leisure expenditure.

Tourism also supports one in 13 jobs in Australia, with domestic tourism alone a $100 billion industry accounting for about two-thirds of the visitor economy.

The activation features every state and territory, and is being rolled out across a range of channels including radio, outdoor advertising, social media and digital, with assets also being made available to industry to use in their own marketing initiatives.

Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison said that the recent reopening of key borders meant that the latest phase of its ‘Holiday Here This Year’ campaign was able to feature every Australian state and territory.

“This is such a special time of the year to connect with our family and friends,” she said.

“And after the year we’ve had – with lockdowns, working from home and physical distancing – we know there’s a lot of Australians out there just itching to get out and spend quality time with those most close to them.

“What better way to capture the rising optimism we’re seeing at the moment, as travel restriction ease and borders reopen again, than by gifting a holiday or a holiday experience. And what better gift shop than Australia itself.

“The memories wrapped up in an Australian holiday are priceless, and the benefits that flow through to our tourism operators and the communities that they support are enormous.”

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NATIONAL TOURISM ADVERTISING BLITZ TO BOOST BOOKINGS

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31 January 2021 - MEDIA RELEASE

A week-long tourism advertising blitz will kick off across the country today, aimed at getting Australians to book their next domestic holiday and boost visitation to those regions that need it the most.

The $5 million marketing push is the first major activation of Tourism Australia’s ‘Holiday Here This Year’ campaign for 2021 and aims to inspire people to take a well-deserved break and in doing so, provide much-needed support to tourism operators and communities around the country. 

Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Dan Tehan said the campaign was part of the Morrison Government’s ongoing support for the tourism industry.

“We want Australians to get excited about holidaying in Australia,” Mr Tehan said.

“Our country is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world and this year is an opportunity for Australians to discover why.

“This nation-wide advertising blitz will inspire Australians to plan and book their next domestic getaway in the weeks and months ahead.

“Domestic tourism is worth $100 billion to the Australian economy and our tourism industry supports more than 621,000 local jobs.

“My message to every Australian is do yourself a favour and start planning your next holiday in Australia because you’ll have the time of your life and you’ll also be supporting a lot of Australian jobs and businesses.”

Tourism Australian Managing Director Phillipa Harrison said that with many Australians returning to work, now was the perfect time to provide them with the inspiration and ideas to book their next holiday.

“Summer is typically the busiest time for our tourism industry, with many operators relying on the revenue generated during this period to support them throughout the year. But as a result of the challenges that we’ve continued to face across the country, for many tourism businesses this holiday season unfortunately hasn’t gone to plan so far,” Ms Harrison said.

“Despite the recent disruptions, consumer confidence remains high with many Australians keen to take a break and get out and explore their own backyard. This campaign is all about capitalising on this pent up demand by providing those people with all the content and inspiration they need to convert this desire and yearning for a holiday into actual bookings.

“We’re calling on people to make the most of the remaining weeks of summer and experience some of our incredible tourism offerings and in doing so, help give back to operators and communities across the country who need our support more than ever.”

The campaign, which runs from 31 January to 6 February 2021, is the latest burst of activity as part of Tourism Australia’s ongoing domestic marketing initiative ‘Holiday Here This Year’,  which aims to stimulate demand throughout the sector by getting Australians travelling safely across the country and booking holiday experiences.

It will feature Australian destinations, tourism products and experiences, including areas impacted by last summer’s bushfires. The week of activity combines event sponsorships, publisher created content and in-program editorial integration as well as national advertising running across key television programs, online and print, and 2,500 outdoor ads.

As part of the nation-wide initiative, Tourism Australia is also encouraging the industry to coordinate an aligned advertising push across their own marketing and social media channels during the same period.

Australians looking for further inspiration to plan their next Australian holiday should visit australia.com or talk to their local travel agent.

More information on the campaign can be found at https://www.tourism.australia.com/en/about/our-campaigns/holiday-here-this-year.html

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Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Owners of the land, sea and waters of the Australian continent, and recognise their custodianship of culture and Country for over 60,000 years.

*Disclaimer:  The information on this website is presented in good faith and on the basis that Tourism Australia, nor their agents or employees, are liable (whether by reason of error, omission, negligence, lack of care or otherwise) to any person for any damage or loss whatsoever which has occurred or may occur in relation to that person taking or not taking (as the case may be) action in respect of any statement, information or advice given in this website. Tourism Australia wishes to advise people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent that this website may contain images of persons now deceased.

Post-pandemic boom as international tourists now spending the most since COVID

Australia is proving a winner with international travellers, with new data showing they are staying longer and often spending more than before the pandemic.

Tourism Research Australia has found the amount of money being spent by overseas travellers per night is slightly higher than pre-COVID in South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia.

New Zealand, China, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States are the ones with the most citizens seeking an Australian holiday.

Queensland has grown into a favoured stop for visitors, with Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast recording the highest overnight spending rates ever.

Travellers spent $3.2 billion in Brisbane and $371.1 million on the Sunshine Coast.

Meanwhile foreign travellers to the Whitsundays, Southern Great Barrier Reef, Fraser Coast and Outback Queensland had tourists spending rates above 2019, before coronavirus arrived in Australia.

' They stay longer and spend more'

Peter Lynch, who operates whale watching tour company Blue Dolphin Marine at Queensland's Hervey Bay, said it was great to see international tourism coming back.

"We're seeing quite a few more North Americans coming through now," he said.

"And when we come into our witching season, it's the northern hemisphere summer, so lots of Europeans.

"The Hervey Bay and Queensland market does very well with tourists from the UK, Germany, Holland, France and Italy. 

"We are definitely seeing an increase across all the tours in the region."

Tourism Minister Michael Healy said Queensland was the "top performer" for international visitor spending.

"Our international tourists, they stay longer and they spend more -- and they're the ones we really want ot focus on.

"We want to make sure that we're getting them here."

He said an increase in arrivals from South Korea and Canada had boosted numbers, but conceded "we are yet to see a full return of visitors from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, a challenge shared across Australia".

Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT all had more visitors spending more money compared to late last year, but fell short of the 2019 levels.

The Northern Territory was the only part of the country where spending went down since the previous survey.

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