New Tourism Marketing for Tasmania Launched

2 September 2009

The Minister for Tourism and the Arts, Michelle O’Byrne, together with Tourism Tasmania’s CEO, Felicia Mariani, today launched Tasmania’s new tourism brand positioning and a national campaign for the coming months, valued at around $2 million.

Ms O’Byrne said the new brand positioning and campaign, which will showcase Tasmania’s internationally recognised destinations and experiences to people interstate, will change the way Australian consumers look at our Tasmania and create a sense of immediacy to travel here.

“Tasmania has enjoyed a strong and sustained tourism performance over the past decade.

“We’ve had excellent results in our target markets nationally and internationally, and this has showed in our continued visitor growth,” Ms O’Byrne said.

“This work has recently helped us to attract over one million visitors in a single year, for the first time in the State’s tourism history.

“And while we should celebrate this historic achievement, we must not rest on our laurels. There is still much work to be done.

“If we want to continue to outperform our national counterparts and build a strong and prosperous tourism industry, we need to create new strengths and give visitors more reasons to visit - and to visit now,” she said.

Tourism Tasmania’s new advertising agency WhybinTBWA, commenced its contract on 1 July 2009 and has responded to the challenge by developing a striking new direction for Tasmania that highlights our State’s internationally recognised icons, places and experiences.

“The new approach will show Australians that Tasmania is a destination of enriching, world-class experiences that you don’t need to travel around the world to get to.

“Quite simply, Tasmania is a world apart, not a world away,” she said.

The new tourism brand and campaign, which made its national debut on 24 August, is the start of an integrated marketing strategy that will see Tasmania’s tourism industry through the next three years.

Ms O’Byrne said in addition to promotions in print media, online and through public relations activities, we will be using a range of distribution partners to spread the message about Tasmania further than ever before and give more consumers a reason to travel now.

“We have raised the bar to new heights in terms of the breadth of exposure for Tasmania.” she said.

Ms O’Byrne said this new campaign demonstrated the State Government’s commitment to growing the State’s tourism sector and supporting tourism businesses that are extremely important to Tasmania’s economy.

Further information: Rohan Wade (03) 6336 2443 or 0417 051 255