Competitive intelligence: who’s flexing their muscles in the global tourism marketplace?
Partnerships form a central core to the latest round-up of activities from around the world by Canada’s rivals for travellers’ attentions.
2012-08-16 — /travelprnews.com/ — Ever since Dale Carnegie first saw his self-help book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” hit book stores in 1936, partnerships have been a big mantra in doing business. The investigative eyes of CTC News have clocked a few new ones in the global tourism marketplace over the past month or two.
Tourism Australia has its eyes on attracting more South Korean visitors Down Under via the popular TV show “I am Real in Australia.” Beamed out at prime-time on QTV, each show follows a celebrity taking a trip to destinations such as Melbourne, Sydney or Cairns. The show, which aims to inspire South Koreans to follow in those celebrity footsteps in the Australian sand, runs until August.
VisitBritain has clinched a deal to lure more Mexican tourists to the UK, while at the same time encouraging more Brits to take Mexican vacations. The deal is part of a memorandum of understanding between VisitBritain and the Mexico Tourism Board, which leans heavily on luxury travel, adventure, nature, beach, sport and cultural tourism. In 2011, Mexicans made 78,000-plus trips to the UK while more than 300,000 Brits took off in search of Mexican sunshine.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand has just wrapped up its global campaign. “Discover the Other You” was designed to boost Thailand’s social-media profile among young travellers, especially among its key target markets of Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Scandinavia, Singapore, the UK and the US. The campaign generated 24 million-plus views from 119 countries during the two months it ran.
American consulates in India are considering introducing group visa appointments for meetings, conventions and incentive travel (MC&IT) groups to speed up processing times and boost the number of Indian attendees at US events.
The Jordan Tourism Board (JTB) has aggressive marketing plans for Australia for the remainder of 2012. Dr Abed Al Razzaq, JTB managing director, said at Jordan’s international conference that extensive research, showing how the Australian outbound market has increased dramatically over the past five years, had convinced the board to ramp up their efforts. Joint promotions with Emirates for packages to include Dubai will be the first stage.
TripAdvisor has teamed up with Tourism Australia for a year-long partnership targeting consumers in Canada, France, Italy, Germany, the UK and the US. The deal enables planners to create an interactive trip planner and share the itinerary with their friends on social networks.
Staying with the Aussies (they’re a busy bunch), Australian tour operators now have access to Tourism Australia’s three-million strong Facebook fan base. They can list themselves in the “Things to do” section.
