| TOURISM AUSTRALIA MAKES A CALL TO ACTION | | Turning awareness into sales is Tourism Australia’s new goal in Canada | | Zachary-Cy Vanasse |
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| Brian Albano, commercial partnerships, Tourism Australia; Kevin Smith, travel trade manager, DCI; Jane Whitehead, vice president - The Americas, Tourism Australia & Narelle Ross, distribution manager, Tourism Australia |
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Tourism Australia is looking to work with suppliers and partners in the interest of gaining travellers to the destination from Canada. That was the message the tourism office delivered to approximately 50 suppliers and trade partners during a lunch and presentation at Sassafraz Restaurant in Toronto’s Yorkville district on Tuesday.
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| Jane Whitehead, vice president - The Americas, Tourism Australia |
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Tourism Australia also used the occasion to introduce its Canadian partners to Jane Whitehead, vice president – The Americas, Tourism Australia. Whitehead took over her new position, based in Los Angeles, six weeks ago and made her first official trip to Canada in her new role for the event.
Also introduced was Kevin Smith, travel trade manager, DCI, who will be Tourism Australia’s dedicated trade and relations manager in Toronto and will work closely with the tourism office’s trade partners going forward.
“We want to hear from [our partners] in the market and find out what is going on in the market. We want to find out what we’ve done right in the past, what you’d like to see Tourism Australia do, what strategies you’d like to see us take on. We want to talk to [the trade] about how we can better serve this market and, at the end of the day, get more people to head down to Australia from Canada,” said Brian Albano, commercial partnerships, Tourism Australia.
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| Brian Albano, commercial partnerships, Tourism Australia |
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Reiterating Albano’s point, Whitehead underscored the significance Tourism Australia is putting on its relationship with Canadian suppliers and partners in the interest of growing the number of Canadian travellers to the destination. A number which the tourism office currently feels is simply too small.
“About 120,000 people go down to Australia from this market [annually], but really to achieve our goals for growth through to 2020 we need to significantly increase that number, and we see that there is a great opportunity to do so,” said Whitehead.
Whitehead added that Tourism Australia has undergone some changes to how it works, and plans on working, within the Canadian market. The office recognized that Canadian travellers are very aware of what Australia possesses as a travel destination and favour it in theory as a travel destination. Unfortunately, the desire to travel to Australia is not necessarily translating into the kinds of numbers Tourism Australia would like to see.
“I think we’ve done a great job of putting awareness around the destination,” said Albano. “But there’s a conversion problem, not an awareness problem. What we need to focus on is the conversion. So what you’ll see moving forward is – even in the consumer creative we do – we want to close the loop. We want to actually give that consumer a call to action.”
Tourism Australia is attempting to do that by taking the creative and in turn using it to drive the consumer to a travel trade partner who can complete the sale. To do so, Tourism Australia is looking to leverage combination brand and tactical advertisements in order to engage the client into a real booking.
“We are definitely open to anyone’s ideas on this. It is probably one of the things we want to do strongest in the market is really go from that awareness factor to actually closing that transaction and getting that person booking, whether it is with a media asset or an asset that sits within one of [our partners’] own portfolios,” said Albano.
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| Kevin Smith, travel trade manager, DCI |
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Albano described Tourism Australia’s goal within the Canadian market as a “call to action” which will allow its trade partners to capitalize on the noise the tourism office and its brand has managed to make in the marketplace.
“From our perspective, the people in this room can convert business. You guys are doing it to Australia, you’re doing it to other destinations, and we just want to be able to work in parallel with you,” Albano said.
Smith added that there is always the challenge of dealing with the long-haul flight to the destination from Canada, but he said he believes that Canadians aspirations to visit Australia will help them overcome whatever setbacks the distance creates.
“We would like to see a lot more sales for Australia and we can do that. I think part of my role here is to say: ‘Look, we do have this interest, now my role is to support that.’ So I’m open to hear suggestions and ways that we can work together to really move that Australian product.”
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