The Advantage Travel Partnership has launched a partnership campaign with Tourism Australia to help members make more high-value bookings to the destination.
It aims to boost destination knowledge, and provide content and marketing tools to generate new Australia enquiries and bookings.
Some Advantage agents will also have the opportunity to join the ‘G’day Australia’ mega fam trip, taking place this October.
The six-month campaign coincides with Tourism Australia’s own global ‘Come & Say G’day’ campaign activity.
David Forder, head of marketing at Advantage, said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with Tourism Australia to help widely promote this amazing destination.
“Their product fits perfectly with independent travel agents who are skilled at building tailor-made itineraries to meet their customers’ needs.
“The whole structure of the campaign has been built around providing our members with end-to-end support, from increasing their destination knowledge, through to helping bring new high-value customers to their business who are looking to travel to Australia.
“As part of this campaign, we’ve already had great success in engaging our agent community to complete the Aussie Specialist Training Programme, which will set our members on the right path to helping them provide an exceptional service to customers looking to travel to Australia.”
A dedicated Australia consumer magazine has been distributed to members who can send it their customers.
Forder continued: “Our customer magazines are well received by members, as they provide high-quality print and digital content to engage customers.
“This is the first time we have produced one for a sole destination, and I have to say, it looks great.
“Australia is a visually stunning destination, so it works well bringing the content to life through a magazine.
“We’re expecting it to reach around 70,000 customers across the breadth of the UK.”
Sally Cope, regional general manager, UK & Northern Europe, at Tourism Australia, added: “We’re delighted to be partnering with The Advantage Travel Partnership for the first time and have already seen the benefits of such strong support from Advantage members as a result.
“Australia is a complex but high value long-haul destination and the content produced as part of our joint Come & Say G’Day campaign has inspired and provided agents with the knowledge they need to sell Australia.
“We’re delighted to have seen a significant increase in the uptake of the Aussie Specialist Programme, our award-winning online training platform for front line sellers.”
Advantage also launched a dedicated campaign hub on the members’ intranet where they can find about the partnership with Tourism Australia and ways they can increase their Australia bookings, including a list of Advantage’s preferred suppliers.
Other activity in the campaign includes a blog writing competition, point of sale, and a range of content to use across web, social and email.
