Australia Labels “Experience Seekers” as the Future of Its Tourism
Relying on “experience seekers,” who spend big and talk about their travels, Tourism Australia (TA) is targeting such “well-off, well educated” international travelers.
The tourism board, which describes such segment as the future of the Australian tourism industry, says such travelers are keen to share their opinions about their latest holiday adventures when they get home.
“The key point is that this group are opinion leaders within their set. They lead opinions on destinations around the world and by focusing on them as the pointy end of our marketing campaign we believe we can lead a broader range of consumers to come to Australia following their lead,” said TA managing director Scott Morrison, adding that these experience seekers were technology savvy, selective television viewers, and well-connected.
“These are people who are defined not by their demographics but by their attitudes to life and travel. They are experienced, they are looking for authentic experiences ... they want to involve themselves in the holiday activities, they want to get under the skin of the destination and they place a high importance on value,” he added.
Morrison said experience seekers currently make up only about 30 percent of the A$17 billion inbound tourism industry. But they are a major target in TA’s A$180 million three-year tourism marketing campaign which aims to convert the high awareness of Australia into actual visits, as per the information available.
He said catering for this segment was a key element in the creation of the controversial `So Where the Bloody Hell Are You?’ advertising campaign.
Morrison, says average weekly visitations to its website, Australia.com, and to the ad campaign’s own site, have jumped by 71 percent since the campaign was launched in late February. “They are seeing it and they are responding to it and are doing so in every single country where we are running it.”
As per the information available, website visitations in Britain are up 40 percent, in New Zealand they have risen by 50 percent and in the US they have jumped 41 percent. And in the 10 days since the campaign was launched in South Korea and China, visits to Australia.com have jumped 16-fold and almost five-fold respectively.
Morrison said while website hits were a good initial indication, the real evidence for the campaign’s success would come in 12 to 18 months. “The first thing you look for when you launch a campaign like this is a form of response that you can see, and we are clearly seeing that. But this campaign builds over time. This is at least a two-year commitment of rolling this out and reinforcing the message around the world,” he said.
eTN
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Relying on “experience seekers,” who spend big and talk about their travels, Tourism Australia (TA) is targeting such “well-off, well educated” international travelers. 
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