How to tap into the tourism boom

4 young Chinese on bridge Melbourne
By Anne Majumdar


A tourism conference aims to help businesses attract more international visitors, as tourism sentiment runs high following the launch of Tourism Australia’s new coastal and aquatic campaign.

The 2016 Destination Australia Conference, organised by Tourism Australia will take place on Wednesday March 16 in Sydney focusing on how Australia can attract more high-yielding international visitors.  It is the second time the conference will take place, with last year’s inaugural event attracting more than 300 tourism professionals.

New for 2016 is the addition of a second half day China Uncovered conference on Thursday March 17, focusing specifically on the burgeoning Chinese market, which grew to more than one million annual visitors for the first time last year and is forecast to continue growing.

Australian Bureau of Statistics overseas arrivals figures showed that 1,001,200 Chinese tourists travelled to Australia in the 12 months to November 2015.

“The good news is that the industry is really starting to embrace this incredible opportunity by developing experiences which better meet the needs of the many Chinese visitors now flocking to our country,” Tourism Australia managing director John O’Sullivan said upon the release of the figures.

Tourism Australia premiered its new campaign in New York last week at an event attended by new global ambassador Chris Hemsworth. It will spend $40 million over the next six months rolling out the new creative – starting in the US with a joint campaign with Virgin Australia and then across other key international markets, including the UK, China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, India, Malaysia and New Zealand.

An overview of the Destination Australia 2016 conference agenda is available at www.tourism.australia.com/DestAus16.

Image credit: iStock

 

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