iframe>M

Tourism Australia has teamed up with Google and YouTube in an innovative new digital marketing campaign, which will showcase many of Australia’s most iconic visitor attractions to an international online audience of millions.

Making Tracks will see four international musicians from the US (two), the UK and Taiwan, who have recently been selected to take part in YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011, flown to Australia where they will each team up with one of Australia’s most promising musicians and take part in their very own journey Down Under.

The journeys, and the musical compilations which come out of them, will be filmed and later broadcast on YouTube and via Tourism Australia’s digital and social media channels. Between them, the musical pairings will travel to every State and Territory and participate in a range of Australian experiences, including surfing at Bondi beach, a scenic flight over Uluru, an ocean walk on Kangaroo Island, a helicopter flight over the Twelve Apostles, journeying across the Western Wilderness in Tasmania, hot air ballooning over Canberra and a visit to the Sunshine Coast.

The campaign is the latest push in Tourism Australia’s highly successful digital strategy, highlights of which include a YouTube-branded channel and the recent There’s nothing like Australia marketing campaign, which has encouraged thousands of people around the world to share their favourite Australian experience.

Tourism Australia Managing Director Andrew McEvoy believes that the creative collaboration with YouTube will enable Tourism Australia to reach new markets by focusing on music and the arts.

“Making Tracks is Australia’s own magical musical mystery tour and will open up some of Australia’s most iconic destinations and experiences to a huge, global online audience. I’m sure the experience will prove inspiring to all the musicians taking part. What better way to showcase Australia’s music, arts and culture than through these unique and highly personalised musical road trips through our great country.”

Source: www.tourism.australia.com

With increasing profits from tourism, Vietnam decides to seize the opportunity to maximize its potential. At the beginning of February, the country introduced its new logo “Vietnam, a Different Orient”.

For several years, Vietnam has been gradually increasing in popularity and with its booming economy, growing middle class and constantly improving standard of services, its profile as a bright new Asian destination has brought its rewards. The current logo “Vietnam – the hidden charm” may have done its best and right now, local authorities were looking for a striking rebrand which would open up the window of opportunity as wide as ever.

Vietnam has become an unusually appealing destination and tourism numbers are on a constant increase. What local tourism officials need right now, is to secure a steady growth and perhaps appeal to a more diverse traveler base. As local middle class grows in power and wealth, it is likely the domestic tourism branch will grow in power, too. However, major focus of Vietnamese Tourist Administration remains on raising the number of foreign visits to Vietnam by 10 – 15% before 2015, luring some 12 million.

The International Air Transport Association estimates by 2014, Vietnam will be in the top three fastest growing markets in terms of international passengers. The increase in domestic passengers is likely to be even more significant. Simply said, the future outlooks are very positive, indeed.

Many Asian countries have made tourism their priority and it comes as no surprise Vietnam joins in with a new campaign and logo. Especially recent weeks have been fantastic for local tourism as the country welcomed thousands of visitors who wished to experience the Lunar New Year festival. However, Vietnam is only at the beginning of its four–year campaign to get a firm grip of the Asian Tourism market.

Source: www.tourism-review.com

The UK office for Sri Lanka Tourism UK office has won the world’s premier marketing recognition award from the Chartered Institute of Marketing UK. The Sri Lanka Tourism UK office topped the Hotels, Leisure and Tourism category surpassing 10 other nominees which include some of the most recognised brands in the world.

Sri Lanka Tourism UK was the only Overseas National Tourist Office based in the UK to be shortlisted for the Marketing Excellence awards by the specialist industry panel; the nomination recognises their quality standards and specialist achievements in the leisure and tourism sector. The dedicated and hard working team at Sri Lanka Tourism’s London office hope to get the commendation they deserve with this unrivalled industry accolade.

The nomination particularly focused upon the integrated marketing campaign which took place between March and June 2009. This helped to encourage new visitors from the UK in 2009 despite most other countries witnessing a significant decline. This campaign brought together Hoteliers, Ground Handlers, Airlines, Tour Operators and the Tourism Office in order to secure tangible and measureable results. The award will congratulate the entire Sri Lankan tourism industry who joined to provide an amazing value proposition during a challenging period. The campaign was designed and executed in the UK with the help of Romanski (creative & Media) and Representation Plus (PR). They will all share the honours of the award for the team work and synergistic marketing effort.

Winners were announced on Tuesday 15 February 2011 at the prestigious Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane, London, UK.

Sanjika Perera Director UK and Ireland comments “Sri Lanka Tourism is thriving now but has gone through some challenging times in the past and I am proud to be a part of a world class team that gave Sri Lanka Tourism the credit it truly deserves. This award is testimony of that great achievement’’