Play Melbourne interstate campaign attracting more visitors

Victoria's tourism marketing campaign Play Melbourne has been a success interstate, according to Victorian Minister for Tourism and Major Events Louise Asher.
Launched in June last year, Play Melbourne has recorded more than one million hits on YouTube, 437,000 website visitors and 19,000 Facebook fans.
Minister Asher explained "these figures show the Play Melbourne campaign has generated significant interest since its launch nine months ago.
"They also demonstrate the campaign is effectively achieving what it set out to do, which is spark renewed curiosity in Melbourne experiences and destinations."
According to the latest National Visitor Survey released this week, there was a 4.3% growth in domestic overnight expenditure in Victoria to $9 billion in the 12 months to December 2011.
Melbourne attracted 601,000 more interstate overnight visitors than Sydney in the same period, recording a total of 4.3 million interstate overnight visitors.
The National Visitor Survey results also found tourism in regional Victoria continued to grow. Domestic overnight expenditure in regional Victoria increased 6.5% year-on-year to $4.2 billion in the year ending December 2011.
The Play Melbourne campaign was designed to drive increased holiday travel to Melbourne and has included cooperative marketing with Virgin Australia.
The campaign is an integrated media campaign that includes television, cinema, print and radio advertising, cooperative travel industry marketing, as well as online, social media and public relations activities.
Miniser Asher concluded "the survey results provide us with evidence the Victorian Coalition Government's investment in tourism campaigns like Play Melbourne has far ranging benefits for Victoria."

http://www.visitvictoria.com/