Ms Bligh said for the first time the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef would be promoted as a single destination in two separate Tourism Queensland campaigns worth $240,000 combined.
“Island groups such as the Caribbean, Fiji and Tahiti have long been famous as a single tourist destination and are very popular with the US market,” Ms Bligh said.
“Previously, Americans who were aware of the Great Barrier Reef didn’t really know about its beautiful islands.
“The Best Job in the World campaign changed all that with Ben Southall travelling the length of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef promoting his adventures to a global audience of millions.
“For the first time the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef is becoming recognised as a destination in its own right and the fact that two major US-based travel companies are partnering with Tourism Queensland to market it as a single destination is proof that the Best Job in the World is having an impact.”
Ms Bligh said the two campaigns would blanket online and travel agent booking channels with offers for travellers to stay for five nights while paying for four at a range of Great Barrier Reef islands including Hamilton, Hayman, Daydream, Bedarra, Dunk, Lizard, Heron and Orpheus.
“Signature Travel Network for example, is one of the US’ leading luxury travel agency consortia and has 6000 travel agents from 320 US retail travel agencies and 1100 consumer websites within its group,” Ms Bligh said.
She said in addition to a range of online marketing and print activities, the US$140,000 campaign would include a consumer and travel agent competition aimed at increasing awareness of the destination and to drive bookings.
Ms Bligh said Tourism Queensland’s first ever joint initiative with Orbitz.com, one of the US’ top three online travel agencies, would also focus on the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef as a single destination.
The two-month US$100,000 campaign aims to steer Americans towards choosing an Islands of the Great Barrier Reef holiday over the more traditional Caribbean, Hawaiian or Mexican island destinations.
“Over the coming months we will be blitzing American travellers looking for their next island getaway with images of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef through print, online and retail travel agent channels.”
“The US market is one of Queensland’s most important with 157,000 Americans spending $285 million in Queensland in 2009, eight percent more than they spent in 2008.
“The US market is vital to the State’s tourism industry which helps support 222,000 Queensland jobs.
The Signature Travel Network campaign will launch at the end of May while the Orbitz campaign has recently launched.
