TOURISM Australia aims to attract high-earning experience-seekers as it targets UK visitor spending of £1.27 billion in the country by 2008.
This figure is up from last year’s £940 million spend by UK visitors to Australia.
Managing director Scott Morrison said Australia is no longer just about the rock, the reef and the bridge, but about experiences country-wide. “We want to capitalise on this by targeting travellers who crave authenticity during their holidays,” he said.
He identified 3.6 million ‘experience seekers’ in the UK but claimed only 11% intend to travel to Australia in the next year.
Morrison used the 24th annual Australia Tourism Exchange in Adelaide to launch the next phase of its three-year £72 million advertising campaign, which has triggered a 30% increase in visits to Australia.com since March.
This includes a £9 million collaboration with National Geographic magazine for print advertising and specially commissioned programmes for The Discovery Channel in August.
Four new print images have been unveiled with the same bold photography and the controversial ‘So where the bloody hell are you?’ tagline.
“The tagline wasn’t meant to shock and is a small part of the campaign, which will continue to build over the next two years and encourage experience seekers to book a holiday,” Morrison said.
Posters will also be rolled out on London Underground later this year.