Emirates is increasing its marketing efforts Down Under with the signing of a new marketing deal with Tourism Australia.
Under a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the Dubai-based airline and Aussie tourism board will spend a combined AU$14.3 million (US$14.6m) over the next three years on a range of joint marketing activities focusing on some of Australia’s key inbound visitor markets – the UK, Germany, New Zealand, France and Italy.
The arrangement will combine joint marketing campaigns with event and sponsorship activities.
“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,” said Tourism Australia’s Managing Director, Andrew McEvoy.
“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 added.
Emirates is currently in the process of expanding its services to Australia, with the launch of direct flights to Adelaide due to commence next month and extra flights to Perth being added in December.
“Emirates’ AU$14.3m 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 of Public, International, Industry & Environmental Affairs.
“Emirates has carried more than 16m 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,” he added.
Emirates currently operate 70 flights per week to Australia from 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 recently formed an alliance with Qantas, paving the way for a range of new flight options.
McEvoy said that the markets covered by the new MoU align strongly with Tourism Australia’s “balanced portfolio” approach and marked a step towards Australia achieving its Tourism 2020 goal of doubling annual overnight visitor expenditure to up to AU$140bn by the end of the decade.
He also said Tourism Australia was keen to work more 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,” McEvoy said.
