ATC AND QANTAS TO UNDERTAKE NEW JAPANESE TOURISM ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

The Australian Tourist Commission (ATC) and Qantas Airways will undertake a new major marketing campaign targeting Japan’s most-wanted market, the New 50s.

Speaking at the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE) in Brisbane today, ATC Regional Director, Japan and Korea Mr Greig McAllan said the joint marketing agreement was one of the most important partnerships to be formed for developing the New 50s market for Australia.

“The ATC is delighted to work closely with Qantas on further developing a segment which is going to lead the Japanese travel market in the near future,” Mr McAllan said.

“The partnership with Qantas is both timely and critical to the future success of the New 50s market in Japan, given the increasing pressure on funds from the weak Aussie dollar.

“The travel industry in Japan has recognised that the key market for overseas travel from Japan is shifting from the younger traveller to the mature traveller and the new campaign will ensure that Australia is at the forefront of this shift.

Qantas regional General Manager Japan, Hideki Hitosugi said “Qantas welcomes this opportunity to be working closely with the ATC to develop the market further from Japan, one of our most important markets.”

The campaign will be run in cooperation with a number of key trade partners and will aim to generate growth in visitor arrivals during the off peak periods (September - November and April- June).

Travellers from Tokyo and Nagoya will be targeted in the lead-up to these periods. Promotions will focus on the experiences and attractions relevant to this segment in the key gateway destinations, in particular Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

Mr McAllan said the New 50s segment was one of the fastest growing outbound travel segments in Japan.

“According to the Japanese Ministry of Justice outbound segments which grew most dramatically in 2000 were the 50 year olds with a 12 per cent increase and the over-60s, with a 13.3 per cent increase compared to the same time last year,” Mr McAllan said.

“The total number of travellers in this age group was 5.76 million, around one third of total overseas travellers,” he said. “While travellers in their twenties are still an influential market in Japan, their share of the total overseas travel market has declined gradually from a peak of 24.2 per cent in 1996 to 22.6 per cent in 2000.”

Previous ATC /Qantas New 50s campaigns have featured two prominent actresses, Ms Hisako Manda and Ms Wakako Sakai, in a series of newspaper advertorials focusing on the Gold Coast, Sydney and Melbourne.

Mr McAllan said the ATC/Qantas New 50s campaign launched earlier this year was a huge success with strong feedback from potential travellers.

“We have just undertaken a new photo shoot in Cairns and Melbourne to help educate the New 50s travellers on more destinations Australia-wide.

Mr McAllan said the ATC were also working on further joint promotions with Japan Airlines in the JAL New Style Australia campaign.

“For the new campaign we will be using key opinion leaders experienced female travellers” segment (25-34 years), such as fashion designers who will appear in a range of magazine promotions and events,” Mr McAllan said.

Mr McAllan said Japan showed growth for the first time in two years in 2000 and looked set to do even better in 2001.

“ While month-to-month arrivals are fluctuating, the yearly total looks set for around 3 per cent growth,” he said. “April 2001 saw an impressive 7.7 per cent increase in arrivals compared to April 2000.

“2002 holds additional promises of significant growth from the Japan market. Negotiations between the airlines and the relevant authorities for additional flights to Australia are still underway and we anticipate additional capacity from the new runway at Narita airport and perhaps from other ports also.

The soft launch for the new ATC Japanese website will take place in mid-June, with a marketing campaign targeting travel and news websites, search engines and major email magazines, in addition to traditional print media.

Mr McAllan said visitor arrivals from Korea were continuing to grow strongly with a 6.4 per cent increase in visitor arrivals for the year to date April 2001.

“Korea continues to enjoy double-digit growth year-on-year and we expect 180,000 visitors in 2001,” Mr McAllan said.

“The ATC ‘s website for Korea has been on line since early this year and traffic to the site has been strong. Korea enjoys a very advanced web environment, with around 50 per cent of all Koreans surfing the net regularly.