Australia to feature in new television series to attract visitors

Forget Neighbours and Kylie Minogue. Tourism Australia is about to launch a new television series to the world that will present a very different image of the land down under.

In a major departure from previous campaigns featuring bikini models and plush kangaroos, Tourism Australia has unveiled a 10 episode television series to sing Australia’s praises to the world.

A cross between a David Attenborough documentary and Getaway, the 30-minute episodes are narrated by actor Rachel Griffiths and showcase a vast swathe of the country through footage captured as part of the national experience content initiative.

Funded by Tourism Australia, the $12m initiative provided around 1500 operators with new imagery and vision of their products to better promote themselves to travellers.

As a result, Tourism Australia ended up with an enormous catalogue of material, that production company The Precinct used to create the series called Experience Australia.

“NECI was the largest content initiative ever undertaken by Tourism Australia,” said managing director Phillipa Harrison.

“It provided around 1500 tourism operators from 57 regions around the country with the high-quality marketing materials they needed to attract visitors.”

The first season of Experience Australia will appear on the Outdoor Channel which can be streamed on 7plus, and is available in 58 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Tourism Minister Don Farrell said the series would highlight “everything from Indigenous cultural tours to wildlife sanctuaries, mountain experiences, sailing and everything in between”.

“I’m pleased that the second season will focus on Australia’s growing agritourism sector and feature more than 100 tourism operators, including our outstanding food and wine – which is such a great draw card for visitors,” said Senator Farrell.

“We are fortunate to have Rachel Griffiths voice the show, which covers outstanding experiences across all eight states and territories.”

Ruby the Roo is not being mothballed by Tourism Australia just yet.

The series will not replace the $125m “Ruby the Roo” campaign, which is due for a second instalment later this year.

Centred around a toy kangaroo called Ruby, voiced by actor Rose Byrne, the first advertisement took viewers to the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru and the Opera House.

Addressing the Destination Australia conference in Sydney on Wednesday, Ms Harrison said the next phase would continue to build on the character, and ensure that Indigenous

storytelling and creativity remained at the heart of the campaign.

“We’ll be following the adventures of well-known travellers with Ruby as their guide,” said Ms Harrison.

“Ruby and friends will be exploring our icons, but also uncovering new sides to Australia too, to ensure we are building perceptions of what we’re known for.”

After a slow start, international visitor numbers were now closing in on pre-Covid-19 levels, with data for January showing short-term arrivals at 97 per cent of 2019 figures.

Ms Harrison said eastern visitors were leading the recovery, with India climbing from seventh to the fifth-largest source market, and South Korea another “star performer”.

She also announced that Tourism Australia would start operating in Vietnam for the first time, in recognition of the country’s growing importance to Australia.

“Vietnam is currently our 14th largest leisure market but is 9th for holiday spend and will continue to grow in importance,” Ms Harrison said.

Originally published as Australia to feature in new television series to attract visitors