Tourism Australia is launching a campaign in India in an attempt to improve Australia's image. In the past decade the Indian media has given a lot of attention to racially motivated crimes against Indians in Melbourne. Due to all the bad press, many Indians are choosing other destinations for their holidays.
The tourism organization plans to spend close to $25 million dollars on marketing Australia to the Indian and Chinese market in 2012. Unlike Sydney, Melbourne does not have any world famous attractions. Due to this the campaign will be able to encourage visitors to stay in the city as well as lesser known suburbs such as Narre Warren. This will be beneficial to both local businesses and companies located in the CBD. The campaign will primarily focus on television advertisements. However Tourism Australia is likely to utilize some printing services. Travel agents will need promotional material to hand to potential tourists.
One of the more interesting elements of this campaign is that spokeswoman Lara Bingle will not be used. Instead Tourism Australia is planning on using real people in their campaign. Essentially they want to show that Australia is safe for Indians by using Indian spokespeople who live and work in the country. A number of Indian journalists will be in the country when the cricket series begins. Tourism Australia will make the most of this opportunity by taking the journalists to tour popular attractions and sights. The travel authority hopes that this will improve the perceptions the Indian media has of Australia as a holiday destination.
