Australian Tourism

Tourism in Australia is a very large sector of the economy. According to a recent report on the industry by the Australian government, the tourism industry represents 4.7% of Australia's GDP, is responsible for 11.2% of Australia's export earnings, and employs 6% of the workforce. At least until September 2001, tourism and particularly international tourism had grown rapidly for the past two decades. All visitors to Australia, apart from New Zealanders, require advance permission to enter the country. For most countries, a full visa is required, but holders of certain passports are able to apply for the simpler Electronic Travel Authority. Australia was also the received the 10th biggest revenue from being a tourist destination in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Australia's international tourism campaigns have largely centred around the image of Australia as a wild, expansive, almost uninhabited continent, with all manner of exotic scenery and wildlife, endless beaches, large coastal cities and friendly, relaxed locals. A famous advertising campaign of the 1980s featuring Paul Hogan offering American tourists the chance to "throw another shrimp on the barbie" serves as an exemplar of this marketing approach. (Ironically, this statement is a misquote; Hogan's actual line was "I'll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you.") Whilst often criticised in Australia as presenting an unrealistic and embarrassing image of Australians and Australia as unsophisticated and uncultured, the approach seems to have succeeded in attracting visitors. The 2006 Campaign uses Australian Lingoistics to try and attract tourists with the slogan "So Where the Bloody Hell are you?"

So where the bloody hell are you?

So where the bloody hell are you? is a AU$180 million advertising campaign launched in 2006 by Tourism Australia created by the Sydney office of the London headquartered advertising agency M&C Saatchi.

The adverts feature images of Australians "preparing" for visitors to their country. It begins in an Outback pub with the barkeeper saying "we've poured you a beer". Further imagery to a similar effect is then shown, including a young boy on the beach saying "we've got the sharks out of the pool" and partygoers watching Sydney harbour fireworks saying "we've turned on the lights". The advert ends with bikini-clad model Lara Bingle stepping out of the sea and asking "so where the bloody hell are you?".

The campaign has received massive press coverage, and British prime minister Tony Blair even asked "Where the bloody hell am I?" when speaking in Australian Parliament and suffering from jet lag.

Tourism Australia

Tourism Australia is a statutory authority of the Government of Australia, with responsibility for tourism marketing within Australia and internationally, as well as research and forecasting of domestic and global tourism trends.

The organisation was formed on 1 July 2004, under the Tourism Australia Act 2004, and merging four previous organisations: the Australian Tourism Commission.

The organisation caused controversy in 2006 when its advertising campaign "So where the bloody hell are you?" gained media attention following a ban in the UK.

Tourism Australia does its market research through Melbourne based NWC Research.

Popular Destinations

Major sources for international tourism to Australia include the United States and Japan. Both countries tourists benefitted from the weakness of the Australian dollar against their own currencies over much of the 1980s and 1990s, making Australian holidays quite cheap. Japanese tourists make up a distinctive part of the Australian tourism market, usually taking short package tours which concentrate heavily on the iconic sights, Australian native animals (particularly the koala and to a lesser extent the fairy penguin, which the Japanese seem to find irresistibly cute), and souvenir shops, to the bemusement of locals who wonder what these tourists are actually getting out of their visit.

Another major source of tourists to Australia include backpackers, mostly young people from the United States and western Europe (particularly the United Kingdom). Spending more time in Australia, these travellers tend to explore considerably more of the country.

Visitors from the UK are also common. A particularly noticeable part of this market coincides with visits of British sporting teams, such as the English cricket or rugby union team. The Barmy Army, numbering into the thousands, provides fanatical support to English cricket tours. At the final of the 2003 Rugby World Cup, played in Sydney's Telstra Stadium between Australia and England, about half of the 83,500 crowd supported the visitors.

Australians are big domestic travellers as well, with a profusion of seaside resort towns in every state (many located on or near good surfing beaches), mountain retreats (including ski fields), fishing locations, wine growing regions, as well as domestic visitation of the major tourist spots. With the large number of four-wheel-drives purchased in recent years, "adventure tourism" exploring the many remote parts of Australia inaccessible by other means has become more popular.