AUSTRALIA ATTRACTS TOURISTS THROUGH LONG-RUN PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGNS

Australia has a habit of winning battles in tourism through excellent campaigning programs. The “Australia” film by Baz Luhrmann is a recent example. Australia continues to excel in tourism and continues to greet more and more visitors.

Despite global tourism being down 4% last year, 5.6 million people still came to Australia. This is also taking into account the huge distances between Australia and most origin countries of its incoming tourists. The secret not only lies in Australia’s exotic appeal, nor in the fact that many Europeans come back to trace their family roots, yet also that Australia has been taking part in a number of campaigns to promote what it has to offer for a number of years.

Everybody has heard of the “shrimp on the barbie” commercial, yet the $150 million campaign “there is nothing like Australia“ had an even bigger impact over 3 years. More importantly, the Australia page on Facebook is the most visited page on one of the world’s most popular web pages. It could even be said that Australia seems to market itself quite well, as long as the campaigns are simply pushed into the right direction. The fact that Australia is probably the best sporting nation ever also does wonders for the country’s reputation and lure.

The film “Australia” may well have been met with a varied amount of criticism yet has again done wonders for Australian tourism. Whether you like the plot or the performances of Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman or not, the film certainly makes a good advertisement for the Australian countryside, points towards its history and glorifies what it stands for today. Whilst the director Baz Luhrmann fights to get people to watch his film, its mere existence is great news for Australian tourism.