SAYONI BHADURI – Mumbai
Tourism Victoria recently introduced a new marketing campaign Melbourne NOW! For both travel agents and consumers. Celia Ho, regional manager, South and South East Asia, Tourism Victoria said, “Victoria has seen an average increase of 16 per cent in the number of tourists coming from India to Victoria. We are also mindful of the fact that a huge chunk of this is visiting friends and relatives, but there has also been a good increase in pure leisure travellers as well.” To develop this trend further was one of the reasons for the introduction of this campaign. The aim was to develop not just quantity but also improve the quality and content.
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| Beena Menon |
“We expect 1,26,000 tourists travelling to Victoria from India by 2020. Therefore the opportunity for us is enormous,” said Beena Menon, representative for Tourism Victoria in India. She added that the aim was to make both the travel industry and consumers look beyond the traditional itineraries. The campaign has been introduced only for India. “All our activities can rest on this promotion. Travel agents and operators are expected to create a better quality itineraries. With this promotion we can also find out what the consumer want and learn from that,” she added.
Participating travel agents will create new, innovative and sellable travel itineraries to Melbourne/Victoria. Prizes will be awarded to the agents for the most innovative itineraries and those that receive the most number of votes by customers via the social media consumer interface. Once the winning travel agency is declared, Tourism Victoria will partner with them to develop unique cooperative marketing campaigns.
