Q&A with Tourism Australia’s new Europe boss Rodney Harrex

Having only been in his new post in London for seven weeks, Rodney Harrex, Tourism Australia’s GM Europe spoke to TravelMole at ATE 2006.

He said one of the most critical parts of marketing in the region is that there are 32 carriers servicing the Australia out of the UK, including Qantas, Emirates, Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Irlines and they and the ones he had not mentioned are hugely supportive of what TA does and that creates the right environment.

He said that the organisation and its partners invest more than A$12m in the UK, with Tourism Australia putting in about A$9m. Some of that revenue comes from global programmes but some is generated in market and some part of a global marketing programme.

We are focussing on our high yielding visitors and this market delivers a very strong return for us, Harrex said.

When asked about the controversy surrounding the “Where the bloody hell are you” campaign, he said there was controversy and that did generate quite a bit of interest, which has been used to maximum advantage. The campaign is repeated from September.

Harrex said the big challenge was getting the consumer to reappraise their intentions and the different reasons for travel and by engaging with travel agents and www.australia.com this works.

Australia is a “sexy” destination and the campaign was a factor in that as it was cheeky, irreverent and expressed our Aussie personality.

The media is very sophisticated in the UK and a montage of media and stories appear continuously on Australia in addition to what they read online.

There is also a wide range of excellent operators in the UK who sell Australia, many investing significant amounts of money in selling Australia. They are also creative in what they are doing to re-engage with their consumers.

“I am also responsible for the whole of Europe but Ireland is also interesting and as you may know, we tier the world and look at markets around the globe and prioritise them accordingly,” Harrex explained.

“UK is Tier 1 and Ireland has become a Tier 2 market having been elevated from Tier 3, with some very powerful indicators coming out with good emerging segments, much more than working holiday visa holders right through to older travellers and we are now spending A$1m in Ireland, up from A$100k.

“In the UK our big focus is to really follow through on the campaign but competition in the UK is significant and while it is a large market, a number of countries are chasing the same consumers and we need to get the right message out to consumers.

“The good thing is that Aus sits at the top aspiration level and we need to convert into reality – it is great to be loved, but better to be visited.

“With aviation being a big driver and fares out there of £450 and the trade getting so good at getting consumers to purchase before they travel, things look good, but we still a have big challenges but we are well equipped to face them.”

Report by John Alwyn-Jones at ATE 2006