Australia needs one tourism voice: Dixon

Brand 'Australia' needs to streamline its story to the world, according to Tourism Australia Chairman Geoff Dixon, who says the country can "no longer afford" to send out mixed messages.
Speaking at the Australian Tourism Directions Conference 2012 in Canberra last week, Dixon explained the country's success as a destination would require "lining up behind" the brand and establishing "one voice".
Dixon added "we can no longer afford, in such a competitive environment, to have a confused or disparate message when telling our story overseas.
"Tourism Australia is a well resources national tourism organisation, but we can tell a much more powerful and consistent story if we align our efforts with those of the states and territories, the industry, airlines, and global distribution players."
Dixon said future success was also dependent on more tourism businesses joining the "seismic shift" from marketing through traditional medium to the social media sphere.
The conference also saw Tourism Australia release new research on how international visitors view Australia and what most motivates them to visit.
Identifying the barriers and 'triggers' to travel to Australia, Tourism Australia said that most markets have high expectations of Australia and, for those consumers that do visit, Australia delivers strongly with the destination's biggest strengths identified as its world class beauty, safe environment and welcoming people.
Major findings from the Australia Consumer Demand Research, carried out in eleven of Australia's key tourism markets, include:
Australia's biggest strength is its world class nature, well regarded from all markets and core to our global tourism offering;
The greatest drivers of international visitor demand to Australia are coastal (including beaches), aquatic and wildlife experiences, with Tropical North Queensland, Sydney and the Gold Coast continuing to rank highest for uniqueness and appeal;
Australia rates No.1 for safety amongst those who have visited people's actual experiences scoring much higher than the perception of those who haven't, particularly from India and lesser extent Indonesia and South Korea;
Perceptions of Australia's food and wine offering are mixed across markets, although rankings are very high amongst those who have visited and sampled, presenting significant future international marketing opportunities;
Aspiration and intention to visit is very high across the board, however awareness of experiences within Australia and converting interest into actual visits for leisure or holiday travel is lower.
Tourism Australia Managing Director Andrew McEvoy said the findings would contribute towards the industry achieving its Tourism 2020 goal, to increase tourism spending by up to $140bn by the end of the decade, by improving understanding of consumers in Australia's primary tourism export markets.
McEvoy explained "by better understanding what motivates consumers in our key target markets, we're clearly in a much better position to craft our message to convert awareness of our country into visits. It also gives Australian tourism operators valuable insights into how to adapt and develop their business to best attract new visitors.
"We already know Australia has a rich array of unique and distinctive attractions and experiences to offer our visitors, but we need to keep our finger on the pulse of changing consumer preferences and expectations, particularly from Asian markets which are growing rapidly and undergoing significant demographic changes.
"Destination marketing is not a one size fits all discipline and what this new research helps us to do is fine-tune how we promote Australia in different markets. Demand triggers for holidaying in Australia vary market by market, and this work now helps us prioritise future marketing activities and spending.
"The findings suggest we're already doing a lot right, in terms of where

http://www.tourism.australia.com/2020