Qantas and the NSW Government have announced a $28 million deal to promote Sydney and Regional NSW to the world.
NSW Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events Stuart Ayres and Qantas International CEO Gareth Evans signed the three-year agreement, following the success of the partnership that began in 2013.
Minister Ayres said the deal involved a joint investment from Qantas and the NSW Government to attract more international visitors to NSW particularly from the United States, United Kingdom, China, South-East Asia, Japan and New Zealand.
“NSW is the home of inbound international travel so I am delighted to announce the continuation of this partnership with our country’s national carrier, Qantas,” Mr Ayres said.
“As Australia’s premier tourism and events destination, NSW received 3.6 million overseas visitors spending nearly $9 billion in NSW in the 12 months to March this year.
“Offering our visitors exciting major events and safe, high quality air travel through key industry partners including Qantas are critical as we work towards our goal of doubling overnight visitor expenditure to NSW by 2020.”
The partnership continues to focus on both destination and event marketing including joint marketing and advertising campaigns with a focus on online and social media, trade partner campaigns, public relations activities and trade and media visits.
Qantas International CEO Gareth Evans said the national carrier had brought more than one million international visitors to Sydney in 2015 – nearly double any other airline – and was pleased to keep investing in tourism attraction with the NSW Government for another three years.
“As the largest private investor in Australian tourism, it’s a really exciting time for us to be investing to attract more visitors to NSW, particularly with the relatively low Australian dollar and the number of visitors from key markets like China and the US at an all-time high,” said Mr Evans.
“Over the last three years, we have seen a double digit percentage increase in the number of travellers from Asia to NSW with China, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong as the biggest markets.
“We know that online and social media campaigns are really effective at inspiring more people to travel to Australia, so that will be a big part of our focus,” added Mr Evans.
The partnership also has a strong domestic component, designed at encouraging more Australians to visit Sydney and Regional NSW.
Qantas services 21 international destinations from Sydney and Qantas together with its airline partners services over 150 global destinations from Sydney.
Qantas works with each of the tourism organisations in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and Northern Territory to encourage more visitors to Australia.