ETW Staff – Mumbai
As part of its latest marketing campaign, Tourism Australia is promoting the destination to the world through cutting-edge virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree technology. New video content has been created to provide an immersive experience to travel enthusiasts and bring Australia’s incredible aquatic and coastal experiences to life.
Since 2010 Tourism Australia’s global consumer marketing campaign, ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’, has been successfully attracting millions of international travellers Down Under by showcasing some of the best attractions and experiences Australia has to offer. The latest campaign on aquatic and coastal experiences uses virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree video footage to showcase these activities in Australia. Tourism Australia will also be sharing Google Cardboards with KDPs and using Samsung Gear VR for major events and trainings.
These video are currently being promoted on YouTube, as well as on Facebook. These videos have also been shared with key distribution partners for further amplification. Tourism Australia also aims to collaborate with travel industry partners to develop offers and itineraries aligned with aquatic and coastal themed Australian products.
Nishant Kashikar, country manager, India & Gulf, Tourism Australia, said, “We are pleased to launch our new campaign focusing on one of Australia’s key competitive advantages – our world-class aquatic and coastal experiences. The campaign will complement our existing marketing activities, providing an additional proof point to demonstrate why There’s Nothing like Australia. It will tap into the fact that 70 per cent of our visitors participate in an aquatic and coastal experience as part of their trip to Australia. We believe that this campaign will help us sustain the growth in visitation and spend and ultimately move us closer to our Tourism 2020 goal.”
The campaign showcases experiences such as soaring over the 12 Apostles in a helicopter, sailing the Whitsundays, swimming with sea lions and dolphins in South Australia, cruising Sydney Harbour, snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef, kayaking through Katherine Gorge and walking the Three Capes Track in Tasmania.
India is one of the fastest growing outbound tourism markets, and therefore, a key focus market for Tourism Australia. India has moved up from its position as the 11th largest inbound market for Australia in 2014, to being the 8th largest in 2015. For the year 2015, 233,100 Indian tourists visited Australia; an increase of 18.6% over 2014. For the year 2015, Indian visitors contributed over A$ 1.1 billion to the Australian economy, an increase of 38 per cent over the previous year.