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LOS ANGELES AND NEW YORK, January 14, 2008 - Tourism Australia’s annual G’Day USA promotion kicks off this week in Los Angeles. G’Day USA 2008 is set to be the biggest yet with more than 30 consumer, business and trade events from the east coast to the west coast throughout the month of January. Last year’s promotion generated 400 million global audience impressions including 8.15 hours of prime time US television coverage. The estimated value of this media coverage was more than USD$60 million. Growing from its inception in 2004 and celebrating its fifth year of success, G’Day USA is now arguably the largest foreign country promotion held annually in the United States and showcases all things Australian from trade and investment, food and wine, film, arts, fashion, lifestyle, to indigenous culture and tourism. Tourism Australia, one of the founding partners in the promotion, is hosting a number of events this year. They include:
Tourism Australia Managing Director, Geoff Buckley, said G’Day USA 2008 would provide a powerful platform for the Australian tourism industry in what should be a watershed year for travel from the United States. He said that demand for Australia remained strong in the US. “In 06/07, the market generated AUD$1.9 billion in export earnings for Australia, making it our third largest inbound market in terms of Total Inbound Economic Value. Visitors from the US are also staying longer than ever before and spreading their dollars across more parts of Australia. US travelers spent 9.6 million nights Down Under in 06/07, a six per cent increase on the previous year.” Mr Buckley said the possible freeing up of the trans-pacific air route in late 2008 would put more capacity into the market and create new opportunities for Australian tourism. “Tourism Australia is very much of the view that Australia’s potential in the US is enormous and that any move to allow new airlines to provide direct services between the two countries will only see increased growth for all players.” Mr Buckley said recent marketing by Tourism Australia and its partners in the US, including Qantas, had ensured the long-standing American love-affair with Australia remained strong. “Year after year Australia remains Americans top dream travel destination, but we have a long way to go to get more Americans to make that dream a reality.” “This year we have started a new push to position Australia as a short-stay destination for Americans who have traditionally seen Australia as a once-in-a-lifetime, multiple week vacation. While we will always have strong appeal as that sort of destination, we also know that Australia is just as do-able in a short 10 day getaway option.” “This sort of mind-shift will take some time but this year’s ‘Aussie Week’ promotion on the west coast is the start. “Californians and residents of the north west travel easily to Western Europe and even North Asia for week or ten day vacations and both those regions are roughly the same flying time as Australia. But the perception has always been that Australia is too far away, and too big to tackle in a short trip.” Mr Buckley said G’Day USA provided a unique platform to put Australia front-of-mind with Americans. “The strategy behind G’Day, which is to create a critical mass of events that attract media attention and start conversations about Australia, is extremely powerful and has proven its success over the last five years. Tourism Australia is proud of the role it has played as one of the founders of G’Day and we look forward to working alongside our colleagues at DFAT, Qantas and Austrade to take it into the future.” Press contact: Tourism Australia, Zoë Shurgold zshurgold@tourism.australia.com
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