Queensland flight prices slashed as new overseas ad campaign focuses on iconic Aussie locations
Queensland has launched a bold bid to boost its domestic visitor numbers as a new national tourism campaign looks to draw overseas counterparts Down Under by focusing on Australia’s natural wonders, like the Great Barrier Reef.
NSW
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Holiday-hungry Aussies can snap up flights to Queensland for under $100 and grab hot deals on stays, tours and experiences as part of a new tourism campaign launched this week.
The Sunshine State’s new push for visitors comes as Aussie tourism chiefs turned their backs on celebrities in favour of a back-to-basics campaign to get international visitors to Australia.
The new Queensland offers include hundreds of dollars in savings on holidays from the Gold Coast to Cairns, the Great Barrier Reef and Outback Queensland.
Campaign partner Virgin Australia has cut price airfares, including Melbourne to Cairns for $125; Sydney to the Gold Coast from $59; Adelaide to Sunshine Coast from $79, and Darwin to Brisbane, from $179.
Tourism operators are promoting hundreds of deals in News Corp mastheads across Australia over the next fortnight as part of the Great Queensland Getaway.
It comes as a new $40 million print and television campaign launching in the US and UK on Monday ahead of the return of international tourists on February 21, will feature iconic Aussie images such as Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef and Sydney Harbour with the slogan “Don’t Go Small … Go Australia”.
The simple ads are a change of direction from Tourism Australia’s 2019 “Matesong” campaign in the UK which featured Kylie Minogue, Ian Thorpe, Shane Warne and Adam Hills that had the misfortune to be released just weeks before the country’s borders closed in March 2020.
The new campaign will have outdoor advertisements in New York’s Times Square and London’s Piccadilly Circus while TV time has been bought in Los Angeles during the break ahead of the Olympics broadcast on Monday after the end of the Superbowl.
Tourism Minister Dan Tehan said Tourism Australia had been waiting for the border to reopening to ramp up marketing efforts overseas to remind people what they had been missing.
“After Covid-19, the world is looking forward to taking a holiday and we want that holiday to be in Australia,” he said.
“Australia offers the best of everything: natural wonders — like the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru — beaches, world-class food and drink, Indigenous traditions and culture, unique wildlife, arts and sport.”
Mr Tehan said the campaign aimed to get visitors to make the most of their holiday by filling their itinerary and doing as many things as possible.
In addition to the UK and US, the campaign will run in Germany, France, Italy, and Canada.
In the year before the pandemic, 9.5 million international visitors came to Australia spending $45.4 billion.
The top countries for tourists were China and New Zealand who between them provided 2.86 million of them.
Kirk Demeter who runs the Down Under Answers travel agency in Washington state in the US, said enthusiasm for travel to Australia had not gone away.
“Australia has always been at the top of the list when it comes to where we Yanks most want to go and that will play out in the upcoming year,” he said.
“We’re already getting requests for parts of Australia considered off the beaten path, so there will be dispersal throughout the country and a willingness to explore.”
Sharon Tidbury of the New York City based Aspire Down Under said the companies’ clients had been waiting for certainty about when they can travel to Australia without restrictions, and the past few days had been hectic with people rebooking.
“We’ve also had plenty of interest from new clients who have heard that Australia is opening its border,” she said.
“Americans are ready to travel and can now finally take that trip to Australia they’ve been dreaming about.”
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