Tough times, but campaign working

TOURISM chiefs say the $40 million marketing campaign based around the Baz Luhrmann film Australia is working, despite the latest figures showing the year is shaping up to be the toughest for the industry in more than a decade.

The federal tourism body, Tourism Australia, cites as evidence an increase in bookings in selective markets and traffic to its website as evidence that the campaign, launched in October, is working.

It also said softer measures such as traveller surveys showed a rise in intention to travel to Australia to show that "Come Walkabout" is maintaining Australia's profile at a time that global travel is slowing.

Seventy-two million people globally have been "exposed" to the campaign which used the film as a platform to market Australia as a destination offering transformative experiences, the tourism body said.

People who had seen the film said they were 62 per cent more likely to visit Australia within a year, rising to 87 per cent for those who had seen the advertisements and the film, according to surveys conducted in key markets, including New Zealand, Britain and the US.

The managing director of Tourism Australia, Geoff Buckley, said that by June he would be able to get a "better reading" on whether those people would make a booking. "We are starting to see results that take it to the next level," Mr Buckley said on the eve of a national roadshow to update the industry on the campaign's progress.

The release of the figures, which include the calculation that 1300 media reports had reached 948 million people, comes as the industry prepared for a grim year. Visitor numbers are expected to fall 4.1 per cent - or almost 219,000 - this year to 5.3 million, Tourism Australia predicts, making it the worst year since 1989, when the industry was crippled by the pilots' strike.

The executive director of the Tourism & Transport Forum, Olivia Wirth, said big brand campaigns were all very well but tactical marketing was needed. "We need to keep pace with the changing mindset of consumers. People are booking later, travelling for shorter distances and looking for discounts."