Tourism Australia invests ‘heavily’ in ‘G’day’ campaign


Samantha Mayling


Tourism Australia reported strong demand from the UK as it launched a “heavyweight” marketing campaign across 15 markets. Sally Cope, UK/Europe regional


general manager, said core markets of older clients with higher incomes and young people without mortgages were partially insulated from the cost-of-living crisis, and added: “Destination partners in the UK say demand is unabated with solid leisure business. People are booking longer itineraries and spending more money. “Globally, we are spending


a significant amount of money. The media plan in the UK is heavyweight,” said Cope. Launched on Wednesday, the


‘Come and Say G’day’ campaign is the latest stage of the tourist board’s ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’ brand platform. The new campaign features a


short film called ‘G’day’ starring a new global brand ambassador – Ruby Roo, a toy kangaroo – voiced by Rose Byrne, of Bridesmaids fame. Before Covid, about 720,000


Brits a year visited Australia, and the country had seen a “surge of demand” from the UK since borders reopened


Tourism Australia’s new campaign; inset, Graeme Brett and Ken Garrity


on February 22, Cope said, adding: “We’ve seen high volumes as people have not been back for a long while. And UK air capacity is about 63% of pre-Covid levels, so there’s lots of room to grow. “We are investing heavily in our


campaign, with TV, OOH [out-of- home] and full-motion animated bill- boards – plus print, social and digital.” Cope urged agents to sign up for


the Aussie Specialist Programme, which was upgraded during the pandemic. Aussie Specialists will be prioritised for fam trips. In November and December, the tourist board will be joined by


Australian state partners and Singapore Airlines for


an ‘Australia on Tour’ roadshow,


which will visit Glasgow, Liverpool, Bristol and Reading. Travel agents Ken Garrity,


director at Ken Garrity Travel, and Graeme Brett, Westoe Travel director, said their recent month-long self-funded fam trip to Australia had already resulted in extra bookings. The Premier Aussie Specialists


reported on their trip in blog posts featured on travelweekly.co.uk. Westoe said his social media


efforts had prompted five sales during his trip and six further enquiries.


Hays Travel NW eyes further shops Juliet Dennis


Hays Travel North West has pledged to continue to look at opportunities to purchase travel agencies after buying two former World Travel Lounge branches. The acquisition of the Blackpool


and Preston branches of World Travel Lounge has increased Hays Travel North West’s retail chain to 46 high street stores across the northwest, north Wales and Shropshire. The Wrexham-based agency, a


franchise partner of Hays Travel, has retained all eight staff from the two ex-World Travel Lounge branches. Managing director Don Bircham


said the group would “continue to look at opportunities” for further growth and said the focus was on


6 20 OCTOBER 2022


acquisition rather than opening new branches. He said: “Expansion is now


driven by purchasing [opportunities] rather than opening greenfield sites and that will certainly be the way forward for the time being until such time as people are available to come and work in travel. “Rents are lower at the moment


but [contracting staff] is a lot more challenging than it was. I don’t want to dilute staffing levels.” Bircham said Hays Travel North


West was keen to talk to agency owners looking to sell and had already had “one or two calls”. “It’s a hard time in terms of


cashflow,” he said. “There are some people who will exit the industry after a tough two years. They are the


There are some


who will exit travel after a tough two years. They are the people we want to talk to


people we want to talk to,” adding that “the right locations” would be key to any sale deal. Managers from the two World


Travel Lounge stores are currently going through a training process and formal Hays fascias will be put up once the legal process is complete. Both stores are now trading as part


of Hays Travel North West. Bircham said: “These are great towns for us to open in. They are


busy and local shopping hubs and we know from our experience elsewhere that locations like this suit our business model.” World Travel Lounge’s remaining


eight branches are in Fleetwood, Thornton-Cleveleys, Leyland, Formby, Crosby, Lytham, Knott End-on-Sea and Spalding. Managing director David


McDonald said: “We’ve decided to concentrate our group on the high streets of smaller towns in the northwest. We wanted to realign our estate to fit with our future plans and Hays Travel’s retail footprint seemed a natural fit for us to approach them. “All staff are being retained and it


was really important for us that our colleagues would be looked after by a really strong company.”


travelweekly.co.uk


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60