Tourism Australia

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Tourism Australia

Tourism Australia promo by Human Statue BodyArt (Photo credit: Human Status BodyArt)

Tourism Australia is a statutory authority of the Australian Government, which promotes Australia as a tourism destination internationally and domestically and delivers research and forecasts for the sector. Tourism Australia reports to the Cabinet Minister with responsibility for tourism, the Hon Martin Ferguson AM, MP.

Established on 1 July 2004, Tourism Australia brings together the collective skills and knowledge of four separate organisations: the Australian Tourist Commission; See Australia; the Bureau of Tourism Research and Tourism Forecasting Council.

The main objectives of Tourism Australia under the Tourism Australia Act 2004 are to:

* Influence people to travel to Australia, including for events;
* Influence people travelling to Australia to also travel throughout Australia;
* Influence Australians to travel throughout Australia, including for events;
* Help foster a sustainable tourism industry in Australia; and
* Help increase the economic benefits to Australia from tourism.

Tourism Australia is a statutory body subject to the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997 (CAC Act). This recognises the commercial focus of the new body and the need for it to operate flexibly in a commercial environment. (Credit: Tourism Australia).

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Tourism Australia

Articles

Russell Crowe: ambassador for Sydney - 27th January 2008
(Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)

Actor Russell Crowe, businessman Peter Holmes a Court and world surfing champion Layne Beachley have been named Sydney ambassadors.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma said the three would help promote Sydney and NSW to the United States.

"They are international heavyweights who can influence people from industry, business, entertainment and sport," Mr Iemma said in a statement today.

"Their public support of Sydney will encourage people to visit and invest in business, tourism, the arts, sport and education.

"The Sydney ambassadors will be part of a promotional campaign that will appear in the US later this year."

Mr Iemma said the appointment of the ambassadors would help strengthen links between NSW and the US.

"The United States is NSW's fourth largest export destination and Australia's largest source of foreign investment," he said.

The three have been taking part in G'Day USA events, which aim to showcase Australia to the US.

Articles

Another Bingle bungle for Tourism Oz? Not really, by Joel Gibson and Tim Dick - 20th March 2006
(Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)

A debate about the blueness of the word bloody, inappropriate text messages, a ban in Britain and then a backflip by the censors.

All this bloody ad campaign needs now is for some old topless pics of its angelic heroine to surface, right?

Done. From the before-they-were-famous file today comes this shot of the fresh new face of Australian tourism, Cronulla's Lara Bingle. The Brit-inspired lad mag Zoo Weekly went looking for photos of Bingle's boobs after its readers responded, er, very positively to her starring role in the infamous "Where the bloody hell are you?" ads for Tourism Australia.

And bingo, they found a couple that someone shot six months ago, albeit partially obscured by the Bingle arms.

So most of Bingle's boobs hit the stands today, just in time for the triumphant return of Bingle and the federal Minister for Tourism, Fran "Bloody" Bailey, from Britain, where they managed to convince censors of the harmless innocence of blue-mouthed Aussies in cossies.

Bingle will now have to convince Bailey and Tourism Oz of the innocence of these pics, which shouldn't be too hard. Although Zoo's press release declared "Lara Bingle poses topless for new men's magazine" you'll note - unless you're Fred Nile - that the Bingle version of topless is relatively boobless.

Which raises the question: where the bloody hell are they?

We asked the editor, Paul Merrill. "As far as we know [these are the raciest pics taken of her]," he assured us. "They're very provocative photos … She's not actually revealing the Lara Bingle nipple at this stage. But maybe that's for a later date."

Merrill reckons Tourism Oz will like them, too, according to the "all publicity is good publicity" approach it took to the British ban.

We called its PR folk yesterday to find out, but haven't heard back. All together now: "Where the bloody hell were they?"

Press Release

New Song Launched To Help Promote Australia To The World - 24 Nov 2004


A new song to help boost Australia's appeal with travellers from around the world was unveiled today by Tourism Australia, following a nationwide search in the Song for Australia competition.

The song, This is Australia, created by Sydney-based singer/songwriter Jackie Bristow, was announced today as the winner of the Song for Australia competition as decided by the Australian public. The competition, organised by Tourism Australia , sought to find a song which best captured the essence of Australia and would help to promote the country to travellers worldwide.

Tourism Australia Acting Managing Director, Ken Boundy said the competition provided an opportunity for all Australians to become involved in choosing a song which conveys both the people and the place.

"Over the past year the Song for Australia competition has attracted overwhelming support - from the hundreds of talented songwriters, who entered the competition, to the hundreds of thousands of Australians who voted to decide the winning song," Mr Boundy said.

"Following an excellent response from songwriters Australia-wide we have a song that will be featured in tourism promotions aimed at inspiring travellers worldwide to experience Australia for themselves.

"The winning song will feature in a new consumer video, which is part of the further roll out of the new Brand Australia marketing approach - helping to differentiate Australia from its competitors.

Jackie's song, This is Australia, brings to life a very personal perspective of Australia that will help to broaden the image and understanding of Australia as well as appealing to the hearts and minds of travellers globally.

"Importantly, This is Australia is also a song which all Australians can be proud of."

A call for entries to Australian songwriters earlier this year resulted in around 500 entries in the S ong for Australia competition. A panel of music industry representatives, including Deni Hines, and tourism marketing representatives selected five finalists for the public voting competition.

From the five finalists the Australian public were invited to select the overall winner through a two week promotion run nationally on radio. When voting for the Song for Australia competition closed in late July a total of 163,749 votes had been received with the winning song, This is Australia by Jackie Bristow, the clear winner with 96,970 votes.

CEO of Commercial Radio Australia, the commercial radio industry's peak body, Joan Warner said commercial radio was proud to support the campaign to find a Song for Australia and to nurture Australian song writing talent.

"Using just two networks - Radio 2UE and parts of the John Laws and Southern Cross Broadcasting networks, and the Austereo part-owned MCM Take 40 Australia and adult networks, over 100,000 votes were generated in a little over two weeks," Joan Warner said.

"This activity has demonstrated the power of commercial radio to reach Australians en masse and to act as a call to action and interaction - in this case to vote for this important song. All commercial radio stations would like to congratulate the winner and Tourism Australia for this exciting initiative," she said.

The winning songwriter Jackie Bristow said it was a great honour to have her song chosen by Australians as the song to help promote the country around the world.

There are so many things I love about Australia - not only the land and light and beauty of the country - but the goodness and honesty of the people," Jackie Bristow said. "I have tried to capture all of this in my song."

"Knowing there is so much history here and so much to learn from the land and the people, I hoped the feeling and inspiration I had felt could be shared and felt by others through the song -This is Australia."

Over the past two months, This is Australia has been professionally recorded with Jackie Bristow singing lead vocals and accompanied by a full orchestra of 20 musicians and backing vocalists. The final recording was produced, arranged, engineered and mixed by Daniel Denholm at Studios 301 in Sydney .

This is Australia will be used in Tourism Australia promotions including new consumer and trade videos, at trade events, and as the on-hold music for Tourism Australia offices globally.

Jackie Bristow will also perform This is Australia live at Australia Week Celebrations in London in early 2005.

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