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Bega Valley Shire Mayor Tony Allen has welcomed the significantly increasing profile of the Sapphire Coast in Tourism Australia’s marketing strategy.

Cr Allen, in his capacity of a director of the Sapphire Coast Tourism board, was commenting on a report from the annual Australia’s National Landscapes Forum at Alice Springs earlier this month.

“The National Landscapes initiative is selecting Australia’s top 15 nature experiences for Tourism Australia’s long term international marketing programs,” he said.

“These experiences are now the only area-based tourism assets used by Tourism Australia in their marketing, engagement with international media and through their extensive overseas partnerships programs.

“They feature on the lead page of the website, www.australia.com,  Australia’s marketing portal to the world, shown in nine languages and receiving over one million hits a month.

“Inbound nature-based tourism is the only growth area currently shown in the national tourism economy and 68 per cent of inbound visitors seek a nature-based experience.

“Australia has the top world brand recognition for nature-based tourism. In the first quarter of 2009, notwithstanding the global economic crisis, the expenditure of inbound nature-based tourism actually increased by 4.9 pr cent to $4.1billion.

“By contrast the expenditure of domestic nature-based tourism decreased 14.9 per cent to $3billion.

“It is clear where the action is and we are very fortunate indeed that we are a key part of Australia’s Coastal Wilderness National Landscape.

“It is important for both the Sapphire Coast Tourism board and Bega Valley Shire Council to maximise the advantages bestowed by this good fortune,” Cr Allen said.

Tourism Australia described the marketing advantages now enjoyed by the National Landscapes:
*  They are the examples used in the campaign leveraged of ‘Australia’ the movie.  More than 23 million people have paid to see the movie and it is now the second highest earner after ‘Crocodile Dundee’.
*  By the end of January more than 72 million potential visitors will have seen the related campaign. The on-line campaign has appeared 92 million times in the UK and USA.
*  More than 130 partners - airlines, travel agents, Aussie Specialists (24,000 preferred travel marketers), wholesalers and affinity partners - have joined the global campaigns.
*  More than 1,300 articles have been generated globally from Tourism Australia’s media relations with a combined circulation of more than 860 million people. The equivalent advertising value of these articles is $12.5 million. These articles have generated a further 4,500 off-shoot articles globally.
*  Each National Landscape has its own page on www.australia.com that includes downloadable videos, interactive Google maps, downloadable fact sheets and high quality imagery
*  The video downloads were installed recently and already though the site’s media portal, there were 744 video views in October alone.  Australia’s Coastal Wilderness is currently the fifth most popular video after Great Ocean Road, Kangaroo Island, Blue Mountains and the Australian Alps.
*  The National Landscapes now have their own entry point in Tourism Australia’s image library.
*  A National Landscape is featured each month on the Tourism Australia media site.  Coast Wilderness was the featured site for October 2009.

“This level of promotion for our area is fantastic. There is simply no way that we could have done this alone,” Cr Allen said.

“This program is there for the long haul, not short term splashes.

Both the Council and Sapphire Coast Tourism intend to work hard to maximise the benefits of this good fortune to our area.

“Every dollar spent on tourism multiplies two-and-a-half times in our local economy.  This means jobs and infrastructure, building on our existing outstanding natural and heritage assets.”