Best Job Ben journeys to Japan for a Queensland promotional tour
Posted by editor (editor) on Feb 24 2010
2010 >>

Queensland Tourism Ambassador and former Best Job in the World Island Caretaker Ben Southall has touched down in Japan today to promote Queensland, Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor announced.

Mr Lawlor said Ben would speak to a range of Japanese media and travel industry and welcome them to Queensland.

“During Ben’s tour of Japan he will meet with influential business groups and conduct presentations at key consumer events in Tokyo, Osaka and Shizuoka,” Mr Lawlor said.

“The visit will see Ben team up with Tourism Queensland’s Tourism Ambassador in Japan, Mieko Kobayashi, and together they will share their first-hand experiences of Queensland.”

Mr Lawlor said during the promotional tour Ben would also promote Jetstar’s resumed daily flights between Osaka and Cairns.

“The four weekly Jetstar flights will add up to 1200 seats for the region per week which equates to approximately 63,000 seats and potential visitors to Queensland a year,” he said.

Mr Lawlor said other highlights of Ben’s visit would include an appearance at the Apple Store in Shibuya, Tokyo where he would have the opportunity to promote Tourism Queensland’s iPhone application.

“Tourism Queensland was the first state tourism organisation to develop an iPhone application that can provide detailed maps and tourism product information,” he said.

“During the application period for the Best Job in the World, more than 143,000 visits to www.islandreefjob.com were registered from smartphones, 86 percent of which were iPhones.”

Mr Lawlor said another key component of the trip would include promotion of the Gold Coast Marathon at the Tokyo Marathon Expo.

“Both Ben and Mieko competed in last year’s Gold Coast Marathon which attracted nearly 24,000 participants, a record number of entrants for the event and an 11 percent increase on the previous year,” he said.

“The Gold Coast Marathon is a key activity on Queensland’s events calendar and an extremely popular event with Japanese visitors.

“During his visit Ben will also speak with Japanese tourism organisations and university students and undertake a range of interviews with key media to talk about his activities as the Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef.

“For the past six months Ben has been bringing the world to Queensland through his blogs, tweets and media interviews and now we’re taking him to the world so he can tell everyone about his first-hand experiences in Queensland.”

Mr Lawlor said while a range of factors such as the global financial crisis, flight cuts and the impact of swine flu had affected the number of Japanese visitors to Queensland in the past year, the state’s tourism industry remained committed to the market.

“Japan is Queensland’s third largest international market with 220,000 visitors spending $436 million on trips to the state in the year to September 2009,” he said.

“The Japanese market is vital to the Queensland tourism industry.

“We are committed to working with the Japanese travel industry and airlines to ensure Queensland remains one of the major destinations of choice for Japanese travellers.”

Mr Lawlor said Ben and Mieko’s publicity tour of Japan would help to strengthen Queensland’s exposure in a key international market and entice more Japanese visitors to Queensland.

“We expect thousands of Japanese people will make a detour from their daily commute to catch a glimpse of Ben and hear about his experiences as the Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef,” he said.

“Mieko also has a natural enthusiasm for Queensland, is immensely popular in Japan and well known to media, who are keen to cover her activities as a Queensland tourism ambassador.

“The Best Job in the World had a huge following in Japan and has to date resulted in more than $400 million in global publicity for Queensland.”

For more updates and details on Ben's work as a Queensland tourism ambassador visit - www.islandreefjob.com

For information on the Queensland Holidays iPhone application visit - http://www.queenslandholidays.com.au/travel-tools/iphone/iphone_home.cfm

Further information
Tourism Minister – 3224 2002
Tourism Queensland – 3535 5010

Last changed: Feb 24 2010 at 11:38 AM