Business on the up down under
TTG StaffDemand for holidays to Australia has hit new heights. John O’Sullivan, Tourism Australia’s managing director, tells Matt Hampton how the country’s travel industry is responding to the new waves of interest.
Time and money: the two great constraints on modern life. But not, it seems, in the case of holidays to Australia.
Despite the obvious geographical hurdle, the demand for trips down under is now practically at an all time high – which may be why John O’Sullivan, managing director of Tourism Australia, sounds so relaxed.
“UK visits [in 2016] are up 4% to around 700,000 [compared with 2015]. Only in 2013 with the double whammy of the Ashes and the Six Nations did we do so well,” he says.
“Our partners tell us Ashes sales are already ahead of this time in 2013. So it’s a healthy situation, although we’re not getting complacent.”
They might be forgiven for doing so. David Attenborough’s BBC series on the Great Barrier Reef was practically a three-hour advert for the country, airing at peak time over the Christmas and New Year period in 2015-16.
It was a perfect tie-in for Tourism Australia’s aquatic and coastal advertising campaign, which also launched in January last year.
“Around half of the UK saw that series, and our partners have reported strong sales off the back of it,” says O’Sullivan. “Not just in the UK but Germany, US and China – so it’s clearly a message that resonates around the world.”
Strong signals
Australia’s marketing work often gets noticed – from the infamous “Where the bloody hell are you?” tagline of 2006 to Tourism Queensland’s much-imitated “Best Job in the World” campaign. But do the high-profile stunts set a precedent? And have the headliners become a millstone?
“We don’t really have a playbook where ads are concerned,” says O’Sullivan. “All of our campaigns are based on research.” And the current thinking definitely puts nature to the fore.
“We’ve researched our visitors and when people see our natural product in comparison with our competitors in New Zealand, Hawaii, Canada and the US, two-to-one say they prefer ours, so we are playing to our strengths.”
For UK travellers, he adds, those strengths are that Australia is known and safe, has natural beauty in abundance, good food and wine and lively cities.
There is, however, a “but”: it’s difficult to ignore horror stories of sterling’s post-Brexit plummet; indeed, “down under” might just as well describe the state of the pound. As of last month, a Brit heading to Australia would exchange £500 for A$830, as opposed to A$1,014 a year ago.
But if someone has decided to fly halfway around the world, a hundred quid isn’t going to make that much difference. And to push potential clients over the stumbling block of cost, O’Sullivan urges the trade to stress the savings on airfares.
“Despite a weaker pound, you can still stress that Australia is still affordable. The air fare helps, but prices on the ground are good too.”
John O’Sullivan
“There is plenty of capacity on airlift – via the Middle East or Asia or even Chinese carriers now. And since fares are as low as they’ve ever been, it’s not difficult to find a sub-£600 return from the UK.
“Despite a weaker pound, you can stress that Australia is still an affordable destination. The airfare helps, but prices on the ground are good too, and there’s great value-for-money accommodation in the three-star sector – caravan parks especially,” says O’Sullivan.
Savvy agents can experience this first-hand later this year at Corroboree, which is only open to qualified Aussie Specialists.
It is being held on the Gold Coast for the first time and is dubbed Corroboree West, or CW17, since it’s geared up for agents from the western hemisphere.
Training and networking takes place from October 9-14 before 10 themed fam trips take off across the country. (see aussiespecialist.com/cw17uk) There is still time to complete the training if you want to apply for one of 300 places. Competition is tough and agents from the US, Canada, Germany, France and Italy are also eligible. But it is an extraordinary opportunity to visit Australia, with flights provided by partner Singapore Airlines.
“The Gold Coast has a great story right now with the Commonwealth Games in 2018,” says O’Sullivan. “For a long time, it’s just been about the beach and entertainment, but there’s a great food and drink scene and some amazing experiences beyond that.”
Making friends
Indeed, its 19 miles of beaches provide great social media fodder, something Tourism Australia is all too aware of. Could its five million Facebook friends and 2.5 million Instagram followers one day eclipse its traditional marketing activity?
“Social media is a big part of getting our messages out – we get 2,500 user-generated images uploaded a day – but bloggers and the like don’t focus on what agents need to know. Where the trade is concerned, we prefer to rely on education.
“We can feed all of the knowledge we get from social on to our Aussie Specialist programme, which is multi-platform now, so you can complete it on a phone or tablet.”
The Aussie Specialist Programme is one of the longest-running schemes of its kind, and to date has 2,300 qualified UK agents.
“Agents are still an incredibly important part of our narrative,” says O’Sullivan. “Digital throws up so many options with the likes of TripAdvisor – I can see consumers being more reliant on agents to cut through the noise. In the future we’ll see a renaissance of personal service.”
CW17 & Singapore airlines
Subhas Menon, regional vice-president, Singapore Airlines
Why is Singapore Airlines SO keen to support Corroboree?
Singapore Airlines is Australia’s most frequent visitor in terms of weekly flights, so we’re very excited to be the official airline supporting this event for the second consecutive year.
How important is Australia to SIA’s network and how are your routes performing?
Australia is very important to us. Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth continue to feature in our 10 most popular destinations for customers.
We recently added Canberra flights, which brings us to eight Australian cities: Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Perth, Darwin, Adelaide and Canberra – all non-stop connections from Singapore.
What are SIA’s messages for agents selling Australia?
Our network between Europe and Australia, serving eight gateway cities, plus our award-winning product, with a choice of Suites and First Class cabins, Business, Economy and Premium Economy. And our flights from the UK via Singapore’s Changi airport offer the most convenient and comfortable way to travel to Australia.
TTG Staff
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