Contact details
Australian Tourist Commission
Gemini House, 10-18 Putney Hill, London SW15 6AA.
Tel: 020-8780 2229
Web site: www.australia.com
All scores out of 10
Tour operators’ views
Most operators who sell Australia agree that the ATC is one of the most professional tourist boards. It has a balanced approach to working with operators, reassessing its promotional support levels each year rather than dishing out goodies to the same old partners every time as some tourist boards do. 8
Retail agents’ views
As a long-haul destination, the ATC tends to work more closely with independent agents, among whom its reputation is high, especially those who are part of the preferred agent scheme – Aussie Specialists. Agents outside the scheme and business travel agents are less effusive in their praise. My undercover agents report that even unusual enquiries are, in the main, handled with efficiency and sound product knowledge. But retailers resent having to pay 60p per minute to order brochures. Some retailers expressed reluctance at giving the Australia Travel Guide to their clients because it contains advertising for competitor services. 7
Consumers’ views
Callers are answered promptly – a human voice, not an answer phone! Undercover requests for brochures all arrived by special delivery within three days. That’s real efficiency. And the brochures are excellent, with easy to assimilate information on itinerary planning and a covering letter referring the consumer to their nearest preferred agents. However, the ATC does not encourage visitors to its London office. Much better to get information off its Web site. It’s a lot of fun, with over 10,000 pages of colourful information. 8
Kent’s conclusions
Ask anyone in the industry to name their top-five tourist boards and ATC is invariably one of them. It has brilliant global branding and marketing plans but localised decision making and implementation. Altogether, a very professional outfit. With the Olympics in 2000 and the ABTA convention in Australia later this year, look out for saturation media coverage. The test for the ATC will be whether they can maintain the momentum in 2001. 9