Tourism Australia has signed a $10 million marketing deal with Jetstar aimed at boosting Japanese inbound tourism and further expanding brand Australia’s presence in Asia Pacific.

The three year agreement runs to mid 2014 and will see Tourism Australia and Jetstar each contribute at least $1.6 million per year on a range of joint marketing, digital and social media activities. The partners will work cooperatively to leverage more affordable air travel and Australia’s unique attractions to increase arrivals from Japan, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand.

The first tranche of $2 million will be directed to rejuvenating the Japanese market, which has slipped from Australia’s second to fifth largest source market for international tourists over the past ten years.

Managing Director Andrew McEvoy said the deal was an extension of Tourism Australia’s ongoing focus on Asia but also represented a new approach to Japan and working with airlines partners. "It unlocks real value by leveraging the combined skills, expertise and resources which both our organizations have long demonstrated in Asia. We aim to use our well-established and successful There’s nothing like Australia campaign messaging alongside Jetstar.com to drive bookings and inbound travel”.

“This partnership will leverage Australia’s attractiveness as a destination for international tourists with Jetstar’s leading low fares as a means to convert this into actual arrivals. The potential flow-on benefits for Australian tourism will be significant.” Mr McEvoy said.

Source: www.jetstar.com

VisitScotland and National Museum Team up for Surprise Yourself Campaign

The partnership, which has been running since the end of August, has already seen nearly a million people from across the United Kingdom and Ireland view partnership information through joint marketing materials and the Surprise Yourself website, with millions more people expected to see further information over the coming months.

This agreement forms a key part of VisitScotland’s campaign designed to appeal the country’s burgeoning staycation market which last year was worth more than a £1bn to the Scottish economy.

The National Museum of Scotland has welcomed over 700,000 visitors since it re-opened at the end of July following a £47.4m refurbishment. With 16 new galleries featuring 8,000 objects from all over the world, 80% of which have not been on display before. Many of these objects are likely to surprise visitors, none more so than in the Tibetan Prayer Wheelhouse in the World Cultures galleries which was actually made in the Kagyu Samye Ling Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in southern Scotland - the turning of the wheel develops compassion. Malcolm Roughead, Chief Executive of VisitScotland, said: “Anyone who steps inside the magnificently refurbished museum will immediately be struck by the fantastic experience on offer. The partnership between VisitScotland and The National Museum of Scotland as part of our Surprise Yourself campaign will give the chance for millions of people to be inspired to see one of Scotland’s newest and best visitor attractions.”