Here’s a 60-second speed-read of Asia Travel Re:Set Issue #74 – Australia Reopens & Targets ASEAN Inbound Markets, published on 6 March 2022.
Throughout the pandemic, ‘Fortress Australia’ isolated itself from the world. Until now. After a successful vaccine rollout, Aussie borders are open for vaccinated international travellers
Tourism Australia is now prioritising South East Asian markets, especially Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, to help drive its recovery.
On this week’s The South East Asia Travel Show, we discussed Australia’s reopening strategy with Singapore-based Brent Anderson, Regional General Manager, South & South East Asia, of Tourism Australia.
Read the full interview with Brent Anderson in Asia Travel Re:set Issue #74 HERE
Here are 5 key points from the interview:
1) Key challenges of promoting Australia during the past two years
“We looked at the travel and tourism organisations that are dependent on Tourism Australia playing a leadership role. We quickly started running domestic campaigns to keep those businesses alive, keep Australians holidaying in Australia and drive investment. Internationally, we decided to keep marketing throughout the pandemic. We tested things and learned a great deal in various markets.”
2) Preparing destination and distribution partners was vital
“Australia is reliant on our partner airlines, travel agents and OTAs. Every month we updated our media plans and had our partners ready to go. Our standout programme for distribution was the Aussie Specialist programme, where travel agents worldwide enrol in training programmes with dedicated teams. These became online. In 2019, we did 32,000 training sessions, and last year, 80,000. So we got all our destination and distribution partners ready for reopening.
3) Rebuilding airline services and frequencies will take time
“These are massive capital and personnel decisions. Our job is to build the demand so airlines will want to put on new flight services and frequencies. The first stage is reconnecting destinations. Singapore connects to more parts of Australia than any other country in the world. Malaysia is not far behind.”
4) Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are strategic air hubs
“Geography is a key factor. Singapore and Kuala Lumpur airports are critical to restore the last leg of flights into Australia, so that travellers from the UK, Europe and North Asia are able to transit into Australia.”
5) Australia will miss the Chinese market
“Every market in the world is already missing the Chinese. As soon as China does open, we will definitely go after it. VFR is a really important aspect of the Chinese market for Australia. The people-to-people connections and the strong VFR market we get because of the large Chinese population living in Australia will help a recovery.”
This is a 60-second speed-read of Asia Travel Re:Set Issue #74 – Australia Reopens & Targets ASEAN Inbound Markets, published on 6 March 2022.