Etihad –Tourism Australia tieup

Neelam Mathews

Dec 17, 2012

Tourism Australia and Etihad Airways have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at bringing more visitors from the Middle East, UK and Europe to Australia by leveraging the airline’s expanding international network. One wonders if there are any plans to do something similar with India?

http://l.yimg.com

Under the new strategic marketing agreement, the two will invest up to A$6 million over the next three years in a range of cooperative programs targeting visitors from the Middle East, UK and Europe.

"In just five years of flying to Australia, Etihad Airways has demonstrated a strong and growing commitment to its Australian operations." Andrew McEvoy, Managing Director, Tourism Australia "

"We not only have 16 percent of our global seat capacity dedicated to the route but also major investments in community assets like Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium." James Hogan, President and CEO, Etihad Airways said.

“Tourism Australia is doing an impressive job creating demand throughout Europe for business and leisure travel to Australia. Our partnerships with airberlin, Air France-KLM, Alitalia and Czech Airlines, are tapping into this demand and, significantly, are offering flights to Australia from destinations throughout Europe that were previously offline," added Hogan. “On top of that, our partnership with Virgin Australia adds another powerful dimension to the marketing of Australian tourism. As well as giving overseas visitors a wider choice of destinations within Australia, helping to disperse them around the country, it also delivers major benefits to the Australian economy, domestic tourism operators and regional communities.”

Etihad Airways and Tourism Australia have already started planning a major campaign for the first half of 2013 – together with Virgin Australia – in order “to leverage the synergies of the airlines’ joint networks and cooperative marketing spends,” Hogan said.