www.australia.com ousts Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz for consumer travel planning to Australia in N America

Michael Londegran Vice President Tourism Australia the Americas told The Mole at ATE 2006 that things are changing in the US NTO world.

He said that www.australia.com is the number one web site in the USA and Canada with more people going to www.australia.com for trip planning for Australia than Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz and that tells us that people are looking for a worthy reference point for doing their planning.

The NTO world in the past had been one of gradual change, but today, nuance is dead and there is a seismic shift in the market.

These shifts have created a very fertile environment for products and they have forced the goliaths to change how they do business and reinvent what they do.

The biggest change has been that consumer travel research is now an e-business with 8 out of 10 people doing their research on the web with the reality being that this travel planning is being done in 7 or 8 minute bursts, making it rather like a conversation.  The trip planning time is still on average 7 months but the planning is part of the fun of it all.

The Teflon tourist is the next trend with the slow recovery of the 30 million long haul travellers they have decided that they will travel and will not let the troubles of the world bother them and stop them travelling with the Teflon travellers tending to behave this way for travel over 5 hrs. 

The reason for this is that travel defines who they are in their lifestyle and while they are travelling again, the reality being that their priorities have changed in this new era, with safety and secure high on the agenda. 

Tourism Australia in the USA tracks its brand space and definitely in the USA, the fact that Aussies are seen as friendly and helpful is a key factor for US visitors and “mateship” is subtlety that we own and need to take more advantage of.

Experiences have become the currency of these travellers and the conversational currency is experiences, with the big price that determines what travellers do not being $$ but time, with the biggest equation being, how much am I going to experience and how much time do I have to give to do it.

We therefore have to make it rational in terms of the balance between allocating time and gaining the experience.

There is no doubt that the Qantas air pass ticket to Australia including three domestic flights ahs made a difference and we help them use their time effectively and provide the experience they are seeking.

We have now moved into a mass customisation market.  Think of it in terms of Starbucks and others who offer offers a huge range of items and that now applies to holidays, with them still wanting us to have done some thinking, but they want to do some of it themselves.  There is no doubt that in N America travellers are looking en masse for customisation,

Advertising is also changing and interruption advertising it is not the primary way that we take people on the journey to take people to Australia.   We have to provide a deeper chance to get into our product and our website is more interactive and things like Australia week have become significant for us with sensory events becoming very important.  As consumers though, we are getting good at blocking things out so on line is suffering a little too.

So, things are fundamentally changing, but Tourism Australia’s role has not changed, with our role being to get these people who have said they are going to Australia to actually do something about it and make or help as many Canadians and US residents to travel – this has not changed.

Of course, we will not be able to do this on our own and need to nurture the wonderful relationship with all partners in this industry and grow this spirit of teamwork.

The new “Where the bloody hell are you” campaign is going very well in N America with Aussie experiences seen to be wrapped up in the Aussie people giving a personality twist on the experience.  It invites them to take the first step

North Americans expect Aussies to be a little irreverent and we need to use that and ensure that travel and tourism is fun, which has not changed.

And of course the Discovery Channel and National Geographic relationships will be massive in N America.

We should not forget that while there are some similarities, Canada is different to the USA.  We are very proud of Tourism Australia Canada, the newest operation in Tourism Australia, where we spend $US1.2m and have tripled staffing, so we are serious about Canada, with 102,000 Canadians visiting Aus and a 7% year to date increase.

Canadians are extremely valuable travellers to Australia, high on yield and dispersal and Northern Territory is very popular with them.  The Canadian market is very seasonal though with two thirds of visitors in one third of the year snowbirds, getting away for the very harsh winter, so we do a lot of our marketing in the Fall.

Canadians are also very savvy travellers, they are likely to have a customised programme, they are resourceful, get off the beaten track, they use word of mouth a lot too and they buy guide books.

So, things are very bright and positive indeed for Australia out of both N American markets.

Report by John Alwyn-Jones from ATEC 2006