BY JAMES WILKINSON IN LOS ANGELES
The United States tourism industry has launched its first-ever unified marketing campaign as the country aims to boost inbound numbers significantly over the next five years.
Brand USA, the recently formed marketing entity for the country’s travel industry, launched the multi-million dollar ‘Discover this land, like never before’ campaign yesterday (Apr 24 AEST) at International Pow Wow in Los Angeles and expectations for success are significantly high.
United States Government projections have inbound tourist numbers increasing by 23% to 77 million visitors by 2016 and the slick new campaign, which features an original song by music legend Johnny Cash’s daughter Roseanne, will be rolled out across the world from May 1 in two waves.
The first – featuring a series of outdoor, television, print and online advertisements, along with an extensive social media campaign – will be rolled out in Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom. The second wave, soon after, will be in a number of other countries, including Australia, Brazil and South Korea.
Click above to the view the Brand USA TV commercial
“Our goal is nothing short of rekindling the world’s love affair with the USA – the place, the spirit and the dream,” said Brand USA CEO Jim Evans.
“We want to spread America’s message of welcome around the world and invite travellers to experience the limitless possibilities the United States has to offer,” he said.
This year’s International Pow Wow in Los Angeles is the largest ever held and has attracted over 5000 delegates, exhibitors, media, wholesalers and conference organisers from around the world.
Tourism is the United States’ number one service export and in figures announced at Pow Wow, over 62 million international travellers injected more than USD$153 billion into the economy during 2011, along with helping support an estimated 7.6 million jobs across the nation.
Travellers from Asia-Pacific nations, in particular, are significantly important to the United States with Japan (fourth), South Korea (eighth), China (ninth) and Australia (tenth) all inside the top 10 when it comes to international arrivals.
Australia is one of the fastest growing markets for the USA, with 2011 figures up 40% to 1,038,000 travellers compared to 2009 (720,000). Aussies are also spending on average 25 days in the United States, with 53% of them visiting New York. (For more on the Australia-USA market, click here)
Extra seat capacity from airlines such as Hawaiian – which has just upgraded Sydney-Honolulu flights to Airbus A330s, adding an additional 11,000 seats – and a strong Australian Dollar (today at $1.03) is significantly assisting the growth.
Brand USA’s Chairman of the Board, Stephen J. Cloobeck, said it was about time the tourism industry got together to market the nation.
“Other countries around the world have prioritised tourism efforts for years, yet in the 236 years since the United States of America was founded, this country has never had a nationally coordinated effort dedicated to inviting travellers to come visit us,” he said.
“That changes today. This new campaign will tap into an incredibly valuable economic resource – the millions of visitors who want to experience all that our great country has to offer.”
Flying to Los Angeles? Take the Island route and enjoy Hawaiian Airlines’ award-winning service and brand new cabins on board Airbus A330s, which will be operating on Sydney-Honolulu (and onto Los Angeles) flights from today, April 25. Visit www.hawaiianair.com.au