Tourism Victoria woos China with first-ever dedicated campaign

VICTORIA has become the first Australian state to launch a marketing campaign targeted specifically at the Chinese outbound market.

Unveiled by Victorian premier Ted Baillieu during a trade mission to Shanghai in September, the A$8 million-plus (US$8.3 million) Open Up To More campaign centres around a 30-second television commercial depicting a young Chinese couple discovering Victorian landmarks such as Yarra Valley, Ballarat’s Sovereign Hill and the Great Ocean Road.

Lasting till May 2013, the campaign aims to drive traffic to Tourism Victoria’s new Chinese language website (cn.visitmelbourne.com), and will also incorporate advertising across various print and social media.

In addition, Tourism Victoria will work closely with Chinese airlines flying to Melbourne, and Australian tour operators specialising in Chinese inbound.

For the year ending June 2012, Chinese visitors had the highest expenditure of all international arrivals to Victoria, up eight per cent year-on-year to A$905 million. China also contributed the largest share of international visitors to Victoria with 280,100 arrivals, up 27 per cent year-on-year.

Sourced: TTG Asia