Business Visas Australia

Last October the Federal Government decided to invest $9 million into Tourism Australia’s 2009/10 budget which will be spent on overseas marketing, such as the campaign currently being led by ‘Best Job in the World’ winner Ben Southall for Tourism Queensland.

This year the federal government plans a $20 million tourism marketing campaign which they say should lead to a quick turnaround in visitor numbers to Australia.

The campaign will be made up of $9 million of government money, plus $11 million from airlines and state and regional tourism bodies.

Federal Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson said the industry had struggled with the challenges of the swine flu pandemic and the global financial crisis, but Australia had coped better than other destinations.

“We all know that 2009 was a very tough year,” he told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday.

“International visitors to Australia declined by one per cent, compared to an average of about four per cent around the world.”

“Some of our competitors did far worse.”

Mr Ferguson said the government-industry partnership aimed to stimulate the business travel market as well as attract visitors from the Asia Pacific region.

“This funding will support marketing campaigns throughout the first half of 2010 in international markets, it will support charter flights for the Chinese New Year period,” he said.

“It will also fund initiatives to stimulate business travel, which fell away badly in 2009.”

Mr Ferguson said most of the marketing would be directed at New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Japan, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Gulf Region.

He said it was time for aggressive campaigning.

“You’ve got to take the risk, and this is a risk,” he said. “But if you don’t have a go, then you cede opportunities to other competitors.”