Tourism Australia: Congratulations on a job done well
Tourism Tasmania: Trading-off or signing-off
Tourism Australia is to be warmly congratulated on this sophisticated, global campaign.
They have reinvented Queensland’s acclaimed 2009 campaign with a professionalism which is gratifying to witness.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/tourism-australia-to-launch-six-best-jobs-in-the-world-campaign/story-e6frfq80-1226590095882#ixzz2MiH2beaW
Tourism Australia will give away six “best jobs in the world” around the country as part of a $4 million youth tourism campaign.
Each of the jobs will showcase the best tourism attributes of each state and territory except for Tasmania and the ACT whose tourism boards chose not to be part of the campaign.
The cost for Tourism Tasmania to be part of this global campaign was $150,000.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/tourism-australia-to-launch-six-best-jobs-in-the-world-campaign/story-e6frfq80-1226590095882#ixzz2MiGMagst
The new campaign has been designed to target 18 to 30-year-old travellers and showcase the benefits of Australia’s Working Holiday Maker program, which allows young people from 29 countries to have an extended holiday in Australia and supplement their funds with short-term employment.
Young tourists spend around $12 billion in Australia each year and make up a quarter of international visitors.
Tourism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy said working holiday makers tend to stay longer, disperse widely and often come back again, with their families, later in their lives.
Tourism Australia will work with state tourism bodies and organisations such as STA Travel and Virgin Australia, while jobs website Monster.com has created an online “jobs board” in advertising temporary jobs in Australia’s tourism industry.
AAT Kings chief executive Anthony Hayes, who was head of Tourism Queensland at the time of the Best Job in the World campaign, said he was approached by Mr McEvoy a few months ago about the idea.
“They sat down with Tourism Queensland and went through a lot of the detail to work out what worked and what didn’t work the first time around,” he said.
As Tourism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy said, he was prepared for criticism that the idea for the new campaign was not original.
“You don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” he said. “The Best Job in the World was one of the great tourism marketing ideas of all time.
“We spoke to them about licensing that to us but expanding it and bringing in more commercial partners.
“If anything our industry walks away from great ideas too soon; I’m pleased and proud to say we have taken something developed in Queensland and made it national.”
“A number of countries have done variations of it but they have just thrown lots of money at it and thought the real attraction was the million dollar salary.
“But Tourism Australia has made the campaign more about experiences.
“No-one in tourism is ever going to have the billion dollar budget of a McDonalds or Coca Cola so we have to be more creative about what we do and we have to work together.”
Tourism Australia’s new national campaign will focus on the markets eligible for Australian working-holiday visas including Britain, Ireland, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.
”Despite recent challenges – such as the high Australian dollar and the global financial crisis affecting some of Australia’s traditional Western markets – the youth traveller segment remains an important part of Australia’s visitor mix,” Mr McEvoy said.
”For many young people, Australia’s working holiday visa programs provide the economic means to fund travel plans.”
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/tourism-australia-to-launch-six-best-jobs-in-the-world-campaign/story-e6frfq80-1226590095882#ixzz2MiH2beaW
So, why did Tourism Tasmania decline this God-sent offer of inclusion in this fantastic global marketing campaign for the princely sum of $150,000?
Tourism Tasmania marketing director Kath McCann said it wasn’t the right campaign for the state.
“This campaign is excellent, but with a focus on the international youth market, and a price of $150,000 to participate, we considered it did not meet our requirements for return on investment,” Ms McCann said.
“An important factor in our decision-making was that we know that this particular sector is more likely to incorporate Tasmania into their trip when they are on the ground in Australia.
“For that reason we are focusing our efforts on getting to them when they are in the country already.”
But award-winning Tasmanian backpacker operator Greg Price slammed the decision.
“This would have been a golden opportunity for (Tourism Tasmania) to show they are serious about this end of the market,” Mr Price said.
He runs Jump Tours and was last year named Tasmanian Entrepreneur of the Year at the Business Leaders Awards, and received the Minister’s Young Achiever of the Year award at the Tasmanian Tourism Awards.
“$150,000 compared to how much they spend on some other campaigns, I would have thought that would have been fairly good value for money,” he said.
Tourism Industry Council Tasmania chief executive Luke Martin said youth travel was a developing market for the state, generating up to 60,000 visitors each year.
“We’d like to see the youth market grow but there’s only so many markets we can cover with the resources Tourism Tasmania has at the moment,” Mr Martin said.
“Ultimately we need more money in marketing and these are the sorts of trade-offs we have to make.” Mercury, 5th March, 2013
So, Ms McCann what is the right campaign for this State? Do we need more “Save a Mainlander” and “Tassie Afterglow” embarrassing, awkwardly provincial, lack-lustre campaigns that continue to waste taxpayer monies. What is the bet that these cringe-worthy campaigns cost more than $150,000.
What are your specific requirements for return on investment? Did you achieve them on these last two ‘cheeky’ campaigns.
Tourism Tasmania invested around $180,000 in the “Save a Mainlander” Campaign . The “Save a Mainlander” website was used to monitor and track the performance of the campaign.
Tourism Tasmainia spent up to $2 million revamping their website.
Tourism Tasmania invested around $1 million on the “Tassie Afterglow” Campaign. The “Tassie Aftergow” microsite was used to measure and track the performance of the two-month campaign.
Yes, thanks to Tourism Tasmania we are trading the possibility of $ 9 BILLION market worth share in tourism revenue up to 2020 off against TT’s refusal to pay a mere $150,000. They don’t have to do a thing, other than pay the money. This is actually a good point because otherwise, if they did have a say, they’d only stuff it up.
This is Tourism Australia’s Market Strategy: read it and weep.
Tourism Australia’s Market Strategy
To achieve the Tourism 2020 Strategy, Tourism Australia will focus the majority of its global marketing resources on markets which represent the greatest potential for tourism growth to 2020.Tourism Australia will also target those emerging markets that have the strongest growth potential, and will continue to support rest of world markets.
Category 1
Visitor spend by these markets has the potential to be worth over $5 billion by 2020
• Greater China* (China and Hong Kong)
• North America* (USA and Canada)
• UK*
• Australia
Category 2
Visitor spend by these markets has the potential to be worth over $3 billion by 2020
• New Zealand*
• Japan*
• South Korea*
• Singapore*
• Malaysia*
Category 3
Visitor spend by these markets has the potential to be worth over $1 billion by 2020
• Indonesia*
• India*
• Germany
• Middle East
Category 4
Fast emerging
• Brazil
• Vietnam
High Priority
• Italy
• France
For over 30 years, Tom Bailey worked in Federal and State Government departments and was also involved in owning small business retail and tourism ventures. In retirement, Tom takes a very strong interest in how state government departments and local government perform for the benefit of taxpayers. He has been involved in various historical association committees and takes the view that heritage and tourism work hand in hand and need to be fostered.
