Tourism Minister Adam Giles hopeful $1.4 million, six-week campaign will add to the Territory economy

A NEW, and hopefully compelling, television Territory tourism campaign with a surprise twist will start running across Australia this week.

Production stills from a unique new television commercial that uses a surprise twist to encourage Australians to book a holiday to the Northern Territory before it’s too late.

IN 1972 Australians listened when the “It’s Time” advertising campaign asked them to end 23 years of Coalition government and elect Gough Whitlam’s Labor team.

Forty three years later, Australians are being asked to listen to the “It’s About Time” message which aims to attract more visitors to the Northern Territory.

A series of new, and hopefully compelling, television commercials start running across Australia this weekend.

The campaign is catchy, with the first commercial opening in the unlikely setting of a reasonably obviously southern lounge room complete with pink carpet.

A rather proper, older woman, cuppa in hand, and wearing pink dress declares, “Father went back in ’82. Mother not long after him.”

The catchy tourism campaign has a surprise twist

A bespectacled young boy and an old bloke in bowls whites continue the theme, alluding to the passing of loved ones. The punchline is delivered by a middle-aged man who says his wife’s gone to a better place. “So, I thought I’d join her.”

That “better place” is, of course, the Northern Territory. Tourism NT’s online statistics show a 29 per cent increase in interstate visitor nights spent in the Territory from December 2013 to December 2014.

But hotel accommodation figures, particularly in Darwin, have been distorted by fly-in fly-out workers, most notably those working on the Inpex gas plant at Bladin Point.

The picture painted by local tourist operators in recent times does not reflect the positive visitor night figures from Tourism NT.

Chief Minister and Tourism Minister Adam Giles is hopeful the $1.4 million, six-week campaign will add to the $536 million tourism injects into the Territory economy.

The campaign features music from Alice Springs musician Dave Crowe and includes a separate television commercial promoting both the Top End and Red Centre as well as digital and print ads promoting regional areas.