Partners Lining Up to Get Behind Australia's New Youth Campaign

Australia's push to encourage more young international travellers Down Under and take advantage of the country's Working Holiday Maker (WHM) program is gathering momentum, with industry and travel partners lining up to get involved in Tourism Australia's new $10m global youth campaign.

Tourism Australia has already signed agreements worth $1.2m with six state and territory partners as well as more than a dozen travel companies who will offer competitive deals targeting youth travellers in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and the Nordics.

John O'Sullivan, Tourism Australia's Managing Director, believes the quality and quantity of the deals would help stimulate interest and bookings.

“Youth travel is a price sensitive market and we've been very mindful of that fact as we've gone about developing partnerships for this campaign. This is the most comprehensive package of youth focused travel offers we've ever had in market at one time,” he said.

As part of a three year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in London between Tourism Australia and STA Travel to help kick off the global campaign, youth travellers in the UK have been offered flights to Australia from £499 as well as a £100 discount against the cost of a WHM visa application.

STA Travel CEO John Constable said he was excited to be working with Tourism Australia again on its latest global promotion to attract young travellers Down Under.

“We've been involved in a number of successful youth collaborations in the past and all have resulted in an increase in our Australian youth holiday packages, particularly Working Holiday Maker bookings,” Mr Constable said.

The six state and territory tourism organisations (STOs) supporting Tourism Australia's youth focus are Destination NSW, the South Australia Tourism Commission, Tourism and Events Queensland, Tourism Northern Territory, Tourism Western Australia and Visit Victoria.

Commercial partners include:

• UK: STA Travel, StudentUniverse;
• France: Australie Autrement, STA Travel;
• Germany: HM Touristik, STA Travel;
• Ireland: USIT;
• Italy: Go Study Australia, WEP;
• Canada: Go Overseas and four of their distribution partners, Student Work Abroad Program (SWAP), Student Universe, TravelCuts and Work and Travel Company;
• Nordic: Kilroy.

Tourism Australia's new $10m youth campaign was launched in London on 25 October 2016 by the Hon. Steven Ciobo, the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment.

The campaign is targeting youth travellers, specifically seeking to reverse a current downturn in arrivals from Australia's key WHM markets. It is part of a package of recently announced Government measures to increase Australia's attractiveness as a WHM destination.

For the year ending June 2016 Australia welcomed 1.98m international youth arrivals, including almost 320,000 working holiday makers who spent a total of A$3.3 billion.