Australia’s the ‘best gift shop in the world’ in Tourism Australia’s ‘Holiday Gifting’ campaign
Tourism Australia has released a festive iteration of its ‘Holiday Here This Year’ campaign, encouraging Australians to book domestic tourism experiences for both themselves and loved ones over the summer holidays.
The ‘Holiday Gifting’ campaign, created by M&C Saatchi, recognises the hit domestic tourism operators will take this year due to the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, even after the government has considerably relaxed local travel restrictions. Last year, Australians booked 16.4m overnight domestic getaways, worth $12.8bn, across December and January – one fifth of the entire year’s domestic travel spend.
One in 13 local jobs are in the $100bn tourism industry, so both Tourism Australia and the government are hoping the marketing push – off the back of the revival of the ‘Holiday Here This Year’ platform in October, starring Hamish Blake and Zoe Foster-Blake – will mitigate the year-on-year result.
“Australia is lucky enough to be home to some of the most unique and wonderful experiences, but with many of our top attractions most popular with international visitors, we need Australians to help fill the void until our international borders re-open again,” said Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham.
“As we head into the peak travel period and with many Australians preparing to jet set across the country, I encourage people to consider booking an experience that they can share with their friends and family over the holiday period.
“People should book with confidence, knowing that should something unfortunate happen, tourism operators and businesses have adapted to these times by changing their terms and conditions around refunds and credits.
“By visiting a tourist attraction or an experience you will be supporting tourism jobs and also the thousands of tourism businesses across Australia that have done it so incredibly tough this year.”
The campaign will appear across radio, out of home, social media and digital. The campaign assets will also be provided to travel businesses to incorporate into their own marketing activities.
As part of the initiative, Tourism Australia has also unveiled a 12 Days of Christmas-style list of gift ideas, including: 12 boutique hotels, 11 paths for hiking, 10 meals worth booking, nine wines for tasting, eight tours with purpose, seven swims with sea life, six skies for soaring, five days of bliss, four secluded stays, three Aussie gems, two family trips, and a koala in a gum tree.
‘Holiday Here This Year’ first launched in January in response to last summer’s bushfires – and after the $15m, Kylie Minogue-fronted Matesong campaign was pulled due to the bushfire crisis’ impact on international travellers – as Tourism Australia’s biggest domestic marketing campaign since 2013.
However, within just a couple of months of its launch, the platform was paused when COVID-19 saw the closure of both international and domestic borders.
With domestic borders re-opened, Tourism Australia’s marketing director, Phillipa Harrison, noted that the ‘Holiday Gifting’ features every state and territory.
“After the year we’ve had – with lockdowns, working from home and physical distancing – we know there’s a lot of Australians out there just itching to get out and spend quality time with those most close to them,” Harrison said.
“What better way to capture the rising optimism we’re seeing at the moment, as travel restriction ease and borders re-open again, than by gifting a holiday or a holiday experience. And what better gift shop than Australia itself.
“The memories wrapped up in an Australian holiday are priceless, and the benefits that flow through to our tourism operators and the communities that they support are enormous.”
In April, the first full month of the pandemic’s effect locally, travel ad spend dropped by $20.2m. The following month was the worst for the media agency funded ad spend market, plummeting by 40%. Travel ad spend fell 92% that month, and went from the fifth largest ad spend category to 30th year-on-year.
The Blake and Foster-Blake campaign via M&C Saatchi was filmed over Zoom, and was the start of a year-long collaboration between Tourism Australia and the famous duo. Tourism Australia launched a COVID-19 travel portal to accompany the campaign, which will continue to provide resources such as itineraries, offers, and safety information.
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Brittney Rigby was Mumbrella's deputy managing editor - news and analysis. She left Mumbrella in April 2021.
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topics
Christmas ads 2020
COVID-19
Holiday Gifting
Holiday Here This Year
Phillipa Harrison
Simon Birmingham
tourism
