At this week’s ATE 2024, Karryon spoke with Phillipa Harrison to discuss air capacity, the markets that are providing the best potential for inbound tourism, and the huge opportunities that cruising presents.
ATE 2024 began earlier this week in host city Melbourne, marking the largest event in the show’s history with 2,600 attendees and 80 international media flown in to experience the best of Victoria.
In promoting the country, Tourism Australia says it plans to continue to roll out its ‘Come and Say G’day’ brand campaign, launched in October 2022 that features ‘Ruby the Roo’. A giant, stuffed ‘Ruby’ provided an Insta-worthy backdrop for attendees at the ATE exhibition entrance.
“What you will see from us is different iterations of that campaign over time, but the campaign remaining the same,” Harrison told Karryon.
“It shows up in different ways….with partnerships, so sometimes it’ll be more commercial when we’re trying to convert business. Or different segments – for example, we’re doing a working holiday maker campaign at the moment in the UK, France and Korea. And it will show up in cultural moments – we did a version for the FIFA Womens World Cup. Come and Say G’day is going to our enduring campaign for some time,” she said.
Inbound tourism markets
Asked about the full return of the Chinese market specifically, Harrison said the key is time.
“It’s time. That is literally all it is because they are 12 months behind everybody else. If you look at where all markets were this time, 12 months ago, you’ll see the story is similar to China,” she said.
“When a market reopens, there’s not enough aviation capacity; our distribution partners have lost their muscle memory in terms of how to book and sell a destination; and people tend to stay closer to home. Those are the three factors we’ve seen in every other market. Then over time, it just increases – and we’re seeing that now,” she said.
“China is at about 70 per cent now and we’re seeing an increase month by month. But interestingly, we’re seeing more FIT travellers now than ever before from China and that’s been changing quite rapidly over the years – but we’re certainly seeing that right now. I think there’s also a little bit of economics in China playing into it and people just being a little bit conservative at the moment,” she said.
Of the top 15 key markets for inbound tourism that Tourism Australia puts their focus towards, Harrison says that India and Korea are both showing great promise.
“Particularly Korea, and in fact, we put more budget into Korea because we know that they’re a great travelling market and because there’s now opportunity in terms of aviation capacity. We think there’s a real opportunity in Korea at this moment in time, and India – those two are doing really well….they have so much potential growth,” she said.
At ATE 2024, there were 151 international buyers from China; 41 from India; and 19 from South Korea. This compares to 76 from Europe; 64 from the U.S; and 30 from the UK – and 198 Australia-based global buyers.
Air capacity
Statistics shared at the press conference shows Australia is back to nearly 100 per cent of 2019 levels.
Harrison elaborated though on the need for the return of key routes.
“But there’s still some crucial routes that we don’t have and that’s particularly into destinations outside of Sydney and Melbourne. We need more capacity in there because there’s still high demand for those seats,” she said.
“I’m very keen and a huge advocate working under the Team Australia banner for increased capacity because that’s just going to help make us more accessible, and it just helps prices normalise a little bit as well,” she said.
“There’s still such high demand. I haven’t been on an international flight with empty seats since we reopened, really,” she said.
For the fourth year, the Aviation Hub was on the showroom floor at ATE for two days, connecting 17 airports with 33 airlines.
The year ahead
Tourism Australia’s main focal points for the year ahead includes Indigenous tourism; redefining premium with a focus on self care, reconnection and wellness; distribution and agents still being key; agri tourism; storytelling; and the surge in cruise and self-drive holidays.
Cruising continues to be of vital importance.
“Cruising is great to get people dispersed into the regions, particularly regions that just don’t have massive amounts of accommodation. Cruising is fantastic for that coastal dispersion. But we’re also finding that there’s a real pre and post opportunity for non coastal destinations with cruising as well,” she said.
“We’re really excited about the cruising opportunity that’s happening at the moment and we have been working very closely with CLIA and ACA on realising that opportunity for Australia,” she said.
Of her hectic schedule during ATE, the ever-smiling Harrison said she loves the buzz and energy of the event.
“I love hearing the sea of voices outside… it sounds like waves to me and everybody talking about how they can sell more Australia. For me, I find it very energising,” she said.
ATE 2024 concludes on Thursday 23 May when it was announced that Brisbane will be the host city of ATE 2025.
