VICTORIA LAUNCHES THREE PHASE CAMPAIGN TO DRAW INDIANS

Tourism Victoria is eying a 7-10 per cent increase in tourist footfall from India each year for the next ten years. The island destination of Australia is enjoying a premium status in India. “Last year, we received 73,000 Indian tourists, which is a nine per cent growth over 2012. India is a very important market for us. It is among our top 10 and only second to China in the Asia Pacific region,” informed Leigh Harry, Chief Executive, Tourism Victoria. 

Harry shared that their marketing strategy comprises of three phases: Come alive in Melbourne campaign, the cricket World cup 2015 and the food & wine campaign: ‘Restaurant Australia’. “All these campaigns will have high visibility in the Indian market and will be tailored to the Indian market. We are also planning to do tourism campaigns with Singapore airlines and air India in the near future.”

Celia Ho, Regional Manager, South and South East Asia, Tourism Victoria opined, “The Melbourne NOW! campaign is being introduced at a time where inbound tourism from India to Australia has been on a steady rise and is forecasted to increase by an average of 8 per cent per annum between 2010 and 2020. If realised, this will mean approximately 126,100 visitors from India and associated expenditure of almost A$500 million to Victoria.”

Tourism Victoria is also ramping up its marketing efforts to fight the intense competition from short- haul destinations and is relying heavily on the social media. At the recently concluded three-city trade mission to India, Tourism Victoria launched its new digital campaign, ‘Come Alive in Melbourne’. “We need to market ourselves a lot to stay relevant in the market. Social media is a very important and smart tool to do that,” said Harry. 

Shedding light on their social media activities, he shared that, with 2,40,000 Indian fans on its Facebook page, Tourism Victoria is looking at leveraging the social media platform to promote the destination in the Indian market through their upcoming digital campaign ‘Come Alive in Melbourne’, “The campaign which commenced in March will witness Indian video bloggers, Tanmay Bhat and Rohan Joshi blogging about their experiences in Melbourne. Their video blogs will showcase the duo’s trip highlighting some of Melbourne and Victoria’s most appealing attributes for the Indian visitor including events, food, sport, nature and heritage. 

Tourism Victoria is also planning to develop 3-10 night packages for Indians for the 2015 World Cup. Louise Asher, Minister for Tourism and Major Events, Victoria and Australian cricketer Brett Lee, an ambassador for Victoria and the Cricket World Cup, announced that their travel package program will be developed in partnership with trade partners in India. “I am overwhelmed and delighted to be back in India to announce the ICC Cricket World Cup games at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2015. With games scheduled across Australia and New Zealand, the Cup presents the perfect opportunity to watch top class cricket and explore Victoria between matches,” Asher said. 

Lee further added that Indians will be able to enjoy Melbourne during its finest events period which will include events such as the World Cup, Melbourne Grand Prix and Melbourne International Comedy Festival.