Several factors are said to be behind the increase including the dismal Ashes series and British and Irish Lions Tour and campaigns such as ‘The Best Jobs in the World’ that promote Australia to travellers aged 18-30.
The UK remains Australia’s most valuable international leisure market in terms of total spend, with UK leisure visitors’ annual total spend reaching the AUD $2.4 billion mark, contributing 15 percent of the total spend for all inbound leisure visitors to Australia.
The UK is also Australia’s most valuable leisure market in terms of visitor nights and dispersed nights.
Denise von Wald, Regional General Manager UK/Northern Europe, Tourism Australia says: “Australia remains one of the number one destinations that British holidaymakers most want to visit, but our challenge is to convert desire into actual intention to travel. Our ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’ campaign resonates well in the UK market and by working with airlines, distribution and media partners we are moving the dial, taking advantage of the improving economic climate and increasing consumer confidence over here.
“Globally Tourism Australia is working towards increasing the overall expenditure of visitors in line with our 2020 Strategy. In the UK we focus on attracting affluent long haul travellers aged over 50 and Working Holiday Makers aged 18-30. These two segments provide us with the best opportunity to increase overall tourism expenditure out of this market.”
Activities for Tourism Australia in the UK market in the early part of 2014 include co-operative advertising campaigns with leading airline partners; the launch of ‘John Torode’s Australia’ – a ten part TV series to be shown on the Good Food Channel; the development of new training and incentive initiatives for travel agents; co-operative work with leading youth operator STA Travel; and the development of the Restaurant Australia concept to raise awareness of the destinations’ excellent food and wine credentials and experiences.
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