JTB makes Australia a focus destination for 2018

Japan’s largest travel company, JTB Corp, has signed a new memorandum of understanding with Tourism Australia and will run a nationwide campaign in 2018 promoting holidays Down Under through its network of approximately 500 travel shops. The partnership will involve marketing activities to expand travel to Australia for leisure and business events. JTB is also a sponsor of Australia now, an eight-month program from April to November showcasing Australian innovation, lifestyle and creativity. A press conference outlining JTB’s marketing focus on Australia in 2018 was held in Tokyo last week at a function attended by JTB, Tourism Australia and the Australian Ambassador to Japan (photo above) as well as in Sydney yesterday at a function attended by more than 100 Australian suppliers.

Business Events Australia at AIME 2018

Business Events Australia hosted the Australia stand at AIME 2018 this week, meeting international buyers and media and promoting Australia’s business events offering to this targeted audience.

Australia Tourism Summit for North American industry

Almost 200 North American wholesalers, retail operators, airlines, consortia and travel media gathered at Tourism Australia’s sixth annual Australia Tourism Summit in Los Angeles last month as part of G’day USA. Industry thought-leaders including the Hon. Steven Ciobo MP, Australia’s Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment as well as aviation executives, economists, and business consultants provided insights on how to encourage American tourism to Australia. Tourism Australia also hosted PR and media roundtable discussions on a range of topics including sustainability, technology and luxury. A highlights video and Presentations from the Australia Tourism Summit have been published on Tourism Australia’s website.

British influencers show why there’s nothing like Australia

Two British influencers, Zanna van Dijk and Stephanie Elswood, recently visited Australia, sharing their incredible journey with over 500,000 social media followers. Over the course of two weeks the pair visited the Great Barrier Reef, Hamilton Island, Sydney, Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road, the Grampians, the Adelaide Hills and Kangaroo Island. The visit resulted in more than 60 posts across Instagram, five blog posts and three YouTube videos generating over 300,000 likes to date. The visit was supported by Tourism Australia’s as part of its international media hosting program.

Aussie Specialists learn about Australian Wildlife Journeys

Tourism Australia has released a new special interest training module, Australian Wildlife Journeys, on the Aussie Specialist Program to educate travel sellers on the iconic wildlife encounters across the country and seasonal calendar. As part of the Signature Experiences of Australia program, Aussie Specialists learn about this diverse collection of wildlife tourism operators that have a united focus on high quality interpretative guiding and conservation activities. The module is currently available in English with translations to follow.

Tourism Australia welcomes Year of the Dog

Tourism Australia hosted a lunch with industry partners in Sydney last week to welcome the Year of the Dog. Tourism Australia Managing Director John O'Sullivan said that Lunar New Year was a hugely important event in the Chinese calendar and a holiday period which always resulted in a significant spike in the number of Chinese travellers visiting Australia. "Based on feedback from our industry partners and the forward projections that have been shared with us, this year will be another busy one with thousands of Chinese visitors taking advantage of the significant increases we've seen in aviation capacity from Greater China in the past 12 months," he said.

New luxury packages to showcase Australia’s Signature Experiences

Air Adventure Australia has announced two new luxury air tours incorporating Signature Experiences of Australia members. The itineraries - Wine & Wilderness Safari and Golf Links & Luxury - cover South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania and include some of Australia’s best accommodation, wineries and golf courses.

Bannisters to open Port Stephens property late 2018

Coastal luxury boutique hotel Bannisters is expanding with the opening of Bannisters Port Stephens in late 2018. Occupying the beachfront site of the former Salamander Shores at Soldiers Point, the 4.5-star hotel will feature 80 rooms, including four luxury suites and a penthouse, each offering either views of Karuah River or forest and bushland outlooks. Bannisters Port Stephens joins sister property in Mollymook and will similarly boast a signature restaurant by celebrated chef and TV presenter Rick Stein.

Zhan Wang to exhibit at Sculpture by the Sea, Cottosloe 2018

Considered one of the world’s most important contemporary artists, Zhan Wang will travel to Perth for the first time as the Tourism Western Australia Invited International Artist to exhibit a new work created specifically for Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe 2018 titled ‘Floating Rock’. Zhan Wang joins 73 artists from 18 countries exhibiting their art from 2-19 March 2018 at the 14th annual exhibition in Perth this year.

Tjungu Indigenous Cultural Festival returns to Ayers Rock Resort

The acclaimed Tjungu Festival is returning to Ayers Rock Resort on 26-29 April 2018. In its fifth consecutive year, this vibrant celebration of Australian Indigenous culture features music, dance, film, fashion, food, sport and more. This year, country music star Troy Cassar-Daley, super model Samantha Harris, AFL Legend Nicky Winmar and celebrity chef Mark Olive will headline the festivities along with a host of emerging Indigenous performers.

Australia welcomes one million visitors in a month

Setting a new record, Australia welcomed one million international visitors in December 2017, up 3.5 per cent from December 2016, bringing total international arrivals to 8.8 million for the year, up 6.5 per cent. The leisure segment drove the growth in visitors, up 7 per cent for the year. India (up 15.2 percent), Hong Kong (up 13.8 per cent) and China (up 12.2 per cent) were the highest growth markets for the year.

China-Australia Year of Tourism survey

The China-Australia Year of Tourism in 2017 celebrated the close relationship between the two countries and recognised the importance of the China market for Australia’s tourism industry. Now that the celebrations have come to an end the Australian Government is seeking feedback from Australian industry about the year. There are 15 questions and the survey takes about five minutes to complete.

Industry briefing in Melbourne

Tourism Australia is holding a free of charge industry briefing on Wednesday 28 February in Melbourne alongside VTIC’s Visitor Economy Forum. The briefing offers industry the opportunity to hear about Tourism Australia's strategic and creative direction for attracting international visitors to Australia as well as resources and support available for tourism businesses.

Tourism Australia’s events system upgrade

Tourism Australia has upgraded its industry events systems to improve information about events and the registration process. As part of the upgrade the existing site, tradeevents.australia.com, will shut down permanently on 28 February and all event information will now be available at tourism.australia.com/events. Anyone wanting to extract any historical data such as past event registrations, appointment schedules, delegate directories or other event information, should login to tradeevents.australia.com and download the required reports or documents by the end of February.

Tourism and Events Queensland has published a series of consumer demand factsheets on what drives international travellers to choose Queensland as their preferred holiday destination.

Tourism Australia has published a hotel supply map for first half of 2018 in Sydney and Melbourne.

Applications are open until 30 April for the NT Government’s $3 million Visitor Experience Enhancement Program, part of the Turbocharging Tourism stimulus package.

Registration is open for the 2018 WYSE Exchange Australia Youth Tourism Conference to be held on Wednesday 9 May at the Ovolo Woolloomooloo Hotel in Sydney.

Applications are open until Friday 2 March for the International Wine Tourism Competitive Grants program aimed at providing support for tourism marketing and events, infrastructure and innovative products or services targeted at attracting international wine tourists.

Registration is open for the World Tourism Forum's Talent Boost event which focuses on how to attract and retain young professionals within the industry, hosted in cooperation with the University of Brisbane on Friday 18 May in Brisbane.

Registration is open for the Tourism and Transport Forum’s Outlook Tourism Industry and Policy Conference to be held in Sydney on Thursday 17 May.

Registration is open for Destination Food, Australia's first culinary tourism conference to be held at the Museum of Sydney on Monday 21 May.

Applications are open until Thursday 29 March for the Australia-India Council 2018 Grant Program.

Tourism and Events Queensland has produced a new guide on best practices for social content .

Qatar Airways has expanded the portfolio of its hospitality division, Dhiafatina Hotels, with the acquisition of the Sheraton Melbourne Hotel.

Marriott International will be bringing its Le Méridien brand to Melbourne CBD, with the 235-room property slated to open in 2020.

The NSW Business Chamber has published a new paper on encouraging Chinese tourism to NSW.