Qantas and the NSW Government have extended their partnership for another three years and have agreed to spend $28 million to promote Sydney and Regional NSW to the world.
Shiza Minnelli! One could buy an island and retire on that money.
Thankfully, Qantas and the government are looking at the bigger picture and are instead planning to invest the money over the three year period on activities that will attract more visitors from international markets such as the United States, United Kingdom, China, Southeast Asia, Japan and New Zealand.
One of the bigger initiatives will include the launch of a new Virtual Reality digital marketing project aimed at driving early bookings to Vivid Sydney 2017. Plus there’ll be a range of joint advertising campaigns with a focus on online and social media; trade partner campaigns; public relations activities; and trade and media visits.
Qantas International CEO Gareth Evans said the national carrier had brought more than one million international visitors to Sydney in 2015 – nearly double any other airline – and was pleased to keep investing in tourism attraction with the NSW Government for another three years.
“As the largest private investor in Australian tourism, it’s a really exciting time for us to be investing to attract more visitors to NSW, particularly with the relatively low Australian dollar and the number of visitors from key markets like China and the US at an all-time high.”
Gareth Evans, Qantas International CEO
“Over the last three years, we have seen a double digit percentage increase in the number of travellers from Asia to NSW with China, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong as the biggest markets.
“We know that online and social media campaigns are really effective at inspiring more people to travel to Australia, so that will be a big part of our focus.”
NSW Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events Stuart Ayres said he too was “delighted” to extend the partnership and encourage more visitors to travel around the state.