Tourism Australia Website Named One Of World

20 July 2016

Global tourism and destination industry news site Skift, has named Tourism Australia’s Australia.com as one of the 25 best tourism websites in the world.

According to Skift, “Nobody does content better, especially with the Restaurant Australia campaign, which helped drive average visitor spend up double digits over the last two years.”

Tourism websites were judged on their front-end design as well as meeting the demand for more organic story-driven content.

Recognising this trend, Tourism Australia has created an enormous library of online content, in particular to support the Restaurant Australia messaging, which is updated regularly.

Some of the latest content showcases Australian movie star Chris Hemsworth, Aboriginal culinary activities, aquatic-style cuisine in emerging coastal destinations, as well as a pop-up restaurant helmed by Denmark’s celebrity chef René Redzepi.

Tourism Australia also recognises the importance and authenticity of user generated content from industry and travellers, with this content showcased throughout the site.

“We could quite literally write content until the cows come home, but it’s really understanding what the consumer wants, where the consumer’s at, what’s driving them, and what they are searching for,” Lisa Ronson, Chief Marketing Officer of Tourism Australia, recently told Skift. “So we’re using a lot of different data points to inform what content we develop, rather than just a kind of spray-and-pray approach.”

Australia.com has seen a significant increase in traffic (up 7 per cent in 2015/16) and an increase of 104 per cent in terms of leads to industry. Engagement on the site is up 68 per cent since the Aquatic and Coastal campaign was launched in January 2016.

“Keeping ahead of the game and really keeping up with the consumer is probably the most important thing that is on my mind at the moment, and that’s intrinsically linked to the digital landscape. That’s where the consumer is, and that’s where we need to be to inspire them and change their behaviour, so they make a decision to come to Australia versus another destination,” says Ms Ronson.

Tourism Australia previously won an award from Skift as the winner of the Best Social Media Presence in the Tourism Board Category.