Tourism Australia and the Expedia group have signed a multi-million dollar three-year marketing partnership aimed at developing campaigns and content to increase international travel to Australia.
The three-year Memorandum of Understanding represents the first formal agreement, which Tourism Australia has entered into with a global online travel agency.
Tourism Australia Managing Director, John O’Sullivan, said the new commercial agreement was a deliberate move to focus on strategic partnerships, which increased travel bookings and drove yield.
“Expedia is one of the world’s leading travel companies with 20 years’ experience of generating travel sales. It’s this expertise and impressive track record we are excited to be tapping into through this exciting new partnership,” he said.
“Our research shows that our target customers are increasingly turning to online travel agencies when it comes to booking travel which makes Expedia an ideal conversion partner, particularly from our recently revamped australia.com website.
“Partnerships are critical to Tourism Australia in terms of us increasing our customer reach, providing cut-through for our destination messaging and, ultimately, making it easier for consumers to plan, book and buy quality Australian tourism products,” O’Sullivan said.
The first year of the agreement will focus on major campaign activity in the USA and UK, two of Australia’s highest volume and highest spending markets. Marketing activities will be extended to additional markets over the course of the three-year deal.
“Through our strategic co-operative partnership with Tourism Australia, we look forward to creating collaborative campaigns with our Expedia brand around the world to raise awareness and inspire more visitors to experience the natural beauty, unique cuisine, wonderful wine and so much more that Australia has to offer,” said Noah Tratt, global senior vice president, Expedia Media Solutions.
O’Sullivan said that the partnership would extend beyond marketing to also include shared reporting on consumer insights and data analytics.