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| Martin Ferguson, Andrew McEvoy & Simon Westaway |
Tourism Australia and Emirates have signed a global marketing agreement aimed at using the world's largest international passenger airline's growing network to further boost visitation from key markets in Europe and New Zealand.
Under a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the two parties intend to collectively spend up to A$14.3 million over the next three years on a range of joint marketing activities focusing on some of Australia's leading inbound visitor markets - the United Kingdom, Germany and New Zealand, in addition to France and Italy.
The arrangement will feature joint marketing on traditional and digital media platforms as well as event and sponsorship activities.
Tourism Australia Managing Director Andrew McEvoy said Emirates has demonstrated a strong and growing commitment to the Australian market since it first started flying to country in 1996 and has been one of its most committed marketing partners.
"Tourism Australia has worked with Emirates on local cooperative marketing activities across individual markets for some years now, and very successfully so, linking Australia's visitor appeal with the airline's extensive schedule and internationally recognised and well respected brand," Mr McEvoy said.
"Both parties have agreed there is now a need for a more strategic, longer term agreement to more effectively market Australia to Emirates' extensive global customer base, in particular throughout Europe where the airline is so well established," he said.
Mr McEvoy welcomed recently announced developments by Emirates which he believes will further improve inbound aviation access and capacity to Australia - pointing to Emirates' proposed commercial tie up with Qantas and the further expansion of its Australian network through a new direct service to Adelaide from 1 November 2012 and increased flying to Perth from December 2012.
"Emirates' AUS$14.3 million partnership with Tourism Australia takes the airline's investment in 'destination Australia' to the next level. This is the largest investment Emirates has ever made with a global tourism body, highlighting our commitment to Tourism Australia's strategy for attracting global travellers," said Andrew Parker, Emirates' Senior Vice President, Public, International, Industry and Environmental Affairs.
"Emirates has carried more than 16 million passengers to and from Australia since 1996 and today we enable travellers from more than 30 European locations to travel to Australia via one stop in Dubai, offering passengers from all corners of the continent the chance to enjoy the many and varied attractions down under," continued Mr Parker.
Emirates currently operate 70 flights per week to Australia via its Dubai hub: 21 services to Sydney; 21 to Melbourne; 14 to Brisbane; and 14 to Perth. This is planned to grow to 84 weekly by early 2013.
The airline also continues to increase capacity by deploying larger aircraft on existing Australian services, including the introduction of daily A380 services to Melbourne increasing capacity on the route by 38 per cent.
Mr McEvoy said that the markets covered by the new MoU arrangement align strongly with Tourism Australia's 'balanced portfolio' approach and represent another important building block towards Australian tourism achieving its Tourism 2020 strategic goal of doubling annual overnight visitor expenditure to up to A$140 billion by the end of the decade.
He also said Tourism Australia was keen to leverage further benefits from the deal through working cooperatively with Australia's state tourism organisations.
"Under the new marketing partnership and in line with our continuing efforts to have our tourism industry speak with 'one voice' in the international marketing of our country, Tourism Australia will seek to work with those of our State and Territory partners who already have agreements in place with Emirates in markets covered by the new MoU," Mr McEvoy said.
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