Dundee inspired US campaign off to a strong start

Tourism Australia’s Dundee inspired campaign, which launched to over 100 million viewers during the Super Bowl, is off to a strong start in the US as promotional offers begin to roll out. On the morning after the game the campaign videos had already had more than 58 online million views, more than any other Super Bowl campaign, and have now been watch more than 75 million times. The creative was also highly rated by key media watchers including Adweek, AdAge and the Bleacher Report. Press coverage has been extensive with more than 7,700 articles to date worth more than $55 million in equivalent advertising value. However, most importantly, the US version of Australia.com has had record numbers of visitors and has already driven over 33,000 leads to Australian tourism businesses as well as key distribution partners and Premier Aussie Specialists in the US.

Industry briefings in WA and VIC

Tourism Australia is holding free of charge industry briefings on Wednesday 21 February in Margaret River, Thursday 22 February in Perth and Wednesday 28 February in Melbourne alongside VTIC’s Visitor Economy Forum. The briefings offer industry the opportunity to hear about Tourism Australia's strategic and creative direction as well as resources and support available for tourism businesses.

New Singapore Airlines campaign launches in the UK

Tourism Australia and Singapore Airlines have launched a online campaign in partnership with premium travel club, Secret Escapes, and KDP Trailfinders. Titled ‘Choose Australia’, the Secret Escapes online hub features content themed around Australia’s key pillars: Aquatic and Coastal; Food and Wine; and Nature & Wildlife. To help consumers plan their journey the website also features an interactive map, trip planner and to convert interest into bookings the promotion includes a competition to win a luxury Trailfinders holiday with Singapore Airlines flights.

British influencer Lucy Watson showcases Australia

Lucy Watson, a British influencer and reality TV star from the ‘Made in Chelsea’ series, has showcased some of Australia’s top attractions to her 1.4 million followers on Instagram following a recent 15 day trip Down Under. Lucy travelled to Sydney, Byron Bay, Hamilton Island, the Great Barrier Reef and the Gold Coast, producing 14 Instagram posts which have generated over 400,000 likes and almost 2,500 comments to date. The visit was supported by Tourism Australia’s as part of its international media hosting program.

Trade and media engagement in Malaysia

Team Australia hosted a three-day trade engagement program in Malaysia last week with training sessions for key airline and travel agency partners. A highlight of the program was a special dinner for 180 key trade and media to celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year and Malaysia achieving 400,000 visitors to Australia in 2017. The dinner featured an exclusive Australian Fashion Showcase curated by Melbourne based stylist Emily Ward with millinery by Serena Lindeman and guests were entertained by three Astro All Stars singers who filmed a travelogue in Victoria and Tasmania in 2017.

Australia Day celebrations in Germany

German Buzzfeed Mate Lara Faymonville was a guest of honour at an Australia Day brunch hosted by the Australian Embassy in Berlin. As part of Tourism Australia’s partnership with Buzzfeed Lara spent three months at the end of 2017 touring Australia and publishing content as part of the Aussie News Today youth campaign. Tourism Australia rounded off Australia Day festivities in Frankfurt at the end of January with 60 trade and media partners to acknowledge their continued support.

Tasting Australia 2018 program released

The Tasting Australia program for 2018 will showcase unique food and beverage experiences at restaurants, wineries, markets and businesses across the state with more than 140 events across 11 regions from 13 – 22 April. This year, the opening gala –The d’Arenberg Cube Surrealist Ball – will be the first major event held at d’Arenberg’s new Cube. In 2017, more than 52,000 people attended the free festival hub, and more than half of the 131 ticketed events sold out.

Louis Vuitton Time Capsule comes to Melbourne

Australia’s largest shopping centre, Chadstone in Melbourne, has announced a partnership with global luxury brand Louis Vuitton to bring its Time Capsule exhibition to Australia. Running from 24 February until 21 March, the exhibition will take visitors on a journey through the history of Louis Vuitton. The exhibition will also have a truly Australian feel displaying key pieces including former Australian Cricket Captain, Michael Clarke’s cricket travelling trunk; the 2015 Rugby World Cup Trunk; and Mrs. Lloyd Jones (wife of David Jones) travelling trunk.

Expanded Enlighten Festival Canberra, 2 – 18 March

For its eighth year, Enlighten Festival Canberra has extended its program dates from 10 nights to 16 nights and will introduce two additional precincts. In addition to the Illuminations and exploring the new Enlighten precinct, the festival has been extended to include some of Canberra’s most popular autumn events – the Canberra Balloon Spectacular, Symphony in the Park, Canberra Day and Hit 104.7 Skyfire Fireworks.

Queen’s Baton Relay Australian journey in full swing

The Queen’s Baton Relay Australian journey is now in full swing with regional towns and cities welcoming the Baton with community celebrations and events. The Baton will complete a 388-day journey through all nations and territories of the Commonwealth as it makes its way to the Gold Coast in Queensland, where its arrival will herald the official opening of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games on 4 April 2018. See locations it’s visiting on the @Australia Facebook page.

Destination Australia Conference 2018

Registration opened today for the fourth annual Destination Australia Conference to be held in Melbourne on Thursday 15 March. Tailor-made for Australian tourism businesses serious about attracting high yield international travellers, a line-up of experts from around the world will tackle today’s most important tourism marketing questions.

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, www.tradeevents.australia.com, will shut down permanently on 28 February and all event information will now be available at www.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 www.tradeevents.australia.com and download the required reports or documents by the end of February.

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.

Tourism Australia wishes to pass on its sincere condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of former APT Group managing director Barry Matters who passed away last week.

Tickets are on sale for the 2017 Qantas Australian Tourism Awards to be held in Perth on Friday 23 February at the newly opened Optus Stadium.

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 for tourism marketing and events, infrastructure and innovative products or services targeted at attracting international wine tourists.

Applications are open until Wednesday 7 February for Round 9 of the Queensland Destination Events Program funding.

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.

Registration is open for the YHA National Conference in Byron Bay on Wednesday 2 May.

Visit Sunshine Coast in conjunction with local tourism organisations and chambers of commerce has launched the second phase of the ‘Come to life’ marketing campaign, targeting the drive market in south east Queensland.

Tourism and Events Queensland has published the Queensland Social Indicators 2017 Study which examines the social impacts of tourism on the local community.

Garuda Indonesia has announced an extra (fifth) flight per week between Jakarta and Perth from 4 May.

AirAsia X Malaysia will move its Melbourne operations to Avalon Airport later this year making it the first international carrier at the airport.

Cabcharge Australia Limited and Alipay have announced a partnership that allows Chinese people traveling to Australia to pay taxi fares with Alipay.