The pandemic sucked the life out of the tourism industry worldwide. Additionally, with COVID-19 restrictions setting in, the sector went on a complete downhill. Now, after over a year, industry operators are thinking of re-joining the race and seeing a better future for Australia’s tourism sector.
Australia’s tourism industry holds significant value in the country’s total GDP. Australians are now looking forward to traveling, exploring, and rejoicing the beauty of Australia.
Unfortunately, the international borders will remain shut in 2021 as the new variants are showing drastic effects in many countries, so to remain on the safer side, the country will open its doors of international travel in 2022, as some reports suggest.
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This time, domestic tourism
Until the pandemic gets over globally, Australians can plan domestic trips. Although often domestic trips are negated in Australia, it’s sad because Australians spend more on international tourism than international tourists spending in Australia.
What the tourism industry needs is to push campaigning for domestic tourism. Why underestimate Australia’s domestic tourism when the country offers so much to explore within its boundaries. So, to utilise the full potential of domestic tourism, Australian officials need to frame strategies to encourage citizens to embrace the beauty that Australia offers.
The need of the hour is a robust marketing strategy to increase domestic tourism in the country. Anyone might wonder what an efficient marketing strategy could be to improve domestic tourism. But there is something new on the door.
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Marketing push will help Australian domestic tourism reach record highs by 2025
Recently, Global Data released a report that suggests that marketing push will help Australian domestic tourism reach record highs by 2025. Accordingly, GlobalData suggests that domestic trips in Australia in 2025 will be double the domestic trips in 2020. In other words, a 14% growth from the pre-pandemic domestic trips.
The Tourism Sector’s campaign “holiday here, this year” has already started entailing positive results. However, the report also predicts that the country may not regain the numbers by 2024, but 2025 will be the year of a domestic tourism boost.
Craig Bradley, Associate Travel & Tourism Analyst at GlobalData, said, “Due to the pandemic, domestic trips in Australia fell by 45% in 2020 from an all-time high of 116.7 million travelers in 2019. In response, Tourism Australia acted promptly to invest in a domestic tourism campaign that will reap benefits from 2021 onwards. The message to residents is simple: get out there and discover everything Australia has to offer.”
The GlobalData projects entail that domestic trip would increase in the country at an annual compound rate of 9% between 2021 and 2024. Eventually, the ground-breaking record will be around 135 million domestic trips.
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The to-dos
The current domestic campaign, which employs celebrities enjoying Australia’s tourists’ destinations, already shows positive outcomes. However, the marketing strategy needs to focus on the tourist destinations of sightseeing, culture, natural beauty, and city lights.
Officials and tour operators need to invest more in advertising and highlight Australia’s remarkable places for domestic tourism.
The need of the hour is to sustain and grow the sector. Unfortunately, it is unknown when international tourism will get back on track as the COVID-19 waves are still hitting hard in some countries. Thus, it is only through domestic tourism; the sector can grow and save jobs.
Australia needs to release the full potential of domestic tourism. It is time for Australians to prioritise the nation’s beauty and explore the unexplored. In the meantime, government and tour operators should focus on advertising and marketing strategies to attract more tourists.
SOURCE: KALKINE MEDIA
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