TORRANCE, Calif. -- U.S. visitation to Australia was flat from July 2024 to June of this year, but a 19% surge in July has Tourism Australia feeling optimistic about its largest leisure market.
Chris Allison, vice president of Tourism Australia in the Americas. Photo Credit: Angel De Leon
Chris Allison, vice president of Tourism Australia in the Americas, said during the DMO's Australia Marketplace that softness from about April to June was the main reason for flat growth. Spending still grew 10% and is up 27% over 2019.
"Competition has never been higher for the U.S. high-yielding traveler," Allison said. "I don't think we can escape from the fact that there has been a short-term impact on bookings to Australia. Despite that, we also had a really strong peak season. Arrivals between November and March were really positive. And then we're seeing July up 19% compared to last year, which is excellent. So I think we can take confidence that any of that short-term impact now is sort of washed through."
Allison is optimistic that an increase in fights from the U.S. to Australia, on new and existing routes, will bolster those numbers even further. By January, there will be 11% more flights year over year between the two countries, with 163 nonstop flights per month, including the first nonstop flight from the U.S. to Adelaide. United is flying the route from San Francisco.
Tourism ads feature Robert Irwin
The Australia Marketplace event brings travel advisors and media together with industry representatives from around Australia. The event coincided with this week's debut of the second chapter of Tourism Australia's "Come and Say G'Day" campaign, now featuring conservationist and TV presenter Robert Irwin, son of the late Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin.
The DMO said the first iteration of the campaign, which launched in 2022, was highly successful, with research showing a 15% increase in consideration among those who had seen the ads.
The next generation of the campaign, Allison said, is an evolution and not a significant change, with the same positioning -- to come and say g'day to the holiday that lasts a lifetime -- but telling the story in a different way.
"It's about how we continue to evolve and reinvent how we're talking about the destination to continue to remain relevant in that broader, competitive environment," he said, adding that Australia Tourism's chief marketer often talks about destination marketing as historically being "a sea of sameness. It's really how we stand out. That's why we created 'Come and Say G'Day' in the first place."
The ad launched the same night this week that Robert Irwin performed on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." The new ads will focus on actual travelers to Australia sharing their experiences and memories.