Tourism Australia farewells UK Regional General Manager

26 June 2018

Tourism Australia will bid farewell to Denise von Wald next week who has led the organisation’s UK and Northern Europe team for the past five years.

Under Denise’s leadership Tourism Australia has delivered a number of memorable projects and campaigns in the UK and developed invaluable relationships with airline and trade partners across Britain and Northern Europe.

Tourism Australia Managing Director John O’Sullivan says Denise had made a huge contribution to the organisation and Australian tourism during her tenure.

“Over the last five years, Denise and the team have done a great job in building the UK market back into one of our strongest. On behalf of the global Tourism Australia team, I’d like to thank Denise for what she’s achieved and delivered during her time in London leading the UK team. We wish her all the best in her future endeavours,” Mr O’Sullivan said.

Some of the successful projects in the UK Denise has overseen include the launch of the BBC’s Great Reef documentary series presented by Sir David Attenborough and the Restaurant Australia fine dining pop-up events at Australia House in London.

“It has been a genuine pleasure and a privilege to work for Tourism Australia in the United Kingdom,” Denise said. “The UK team and I are proud to have been involved in some of Tourism Australia’s most innovative campaigns, which have challenged the way consumers think about Australia.

“I would like to thank our industry and media partners both here and in Australia, for their outstanding support of Tourism Australia as an organisation and their remarkable enthusiasm for showcasing Australia as the extraordinary destination that it is,” she said.

Denise will officially depart on 1 July to return to her home in Adelaide and her replacement, Sally Cope, will start on 3 September.

Ms Cope joins Tourism Australia from Ultimate Winery Experiences Australia (UWEA), where she is currently Executive Officer and responsible for the leading wine tourism consortium, which represents Australia’s premium winery experiences and is part of Tourism Australia’s Signature Experiences portfolio.

In the year ending March 2018 Australia welcomed 746,000 Brits Down Under, the highest number of year-on-year visits in almost a decade.