Press Release

Monday 28 May 2007

AUSTRALIA.COM TAKES TASMANIA TO THE WORLD
The next generation australia.com website vastly improves Tasmania’s ability to reach a global network of travellers searching for inspirational destinations.

The Minister for Tourism, Arts and the Environment, Paula Wriedt, today congratulated Tourism Australia on the launch of the English and Japanese versions of the site at the Australian Tourism Exchange in Brisbane.

Ms Wriedt said the new-look australia.com makes the online journey to Tasmania a simple, seamless and irresistible experience.

“Changes to australia.com have been nothing short of revolutionary.

“The australia.com online tourism network features the most modern and powerful digital platforms available today.

“A tailored search engine, delivered by Google, allows international travellers to find Australian-based or home-country agents who can help them to plan and book their Tasmanian holiday.

“Tasmania has been working closely with Tourism Australia to ensure australia.com entices potential visitors straight to highly specialised Tasmanian tourism information.

“Potential international visitors can go to a single site to find all the information and links they need to plan and book a holiday anywhere in Australia. Once on australia.com, it is simple for travellers to switch between State and Territory sites, including Tasmania’s.

“Tasmania retains complete autonomy in how it markets itself online as a destination but benefits from the increased profile, reliability and accessibility of australia.com.

“We were an enthusiastic partner in the development and rollout of this important initiative, and staff at Tourism Tasmania have worked hard over many months to ensure the Tasmanian information and web sites accessible through the national portal shine amongst those of our interstate competitors.”

By 1 July, australia.com will be offered in seven languages. In addition to English and Japanese, it will be available in traditional and modern Chinese, Korean, German, Italian and French, a range that encompasses Tasmania’s key international markets.

“Tasmania has achieved remarkable success in attracting international visitors over recent years,” Ms Wriedt said.
“According to Tourism Research Australia’s International Visitor Survey, Tasmania’s international visitors increased by 36 per cent from 2004 to 2006, and our share of Australia’s international tourism market increased from 2.3 per cent to 3 per cent.

“The popularity of australia.com, together with its highly visual and intuitive new navigation to Tasmania’s own outstanding web sites, will help us increase our share of Australia’s international tourism market even further,” Ms Wriedt said.

Research shows that travel planning and booking via the Internet are among the most popular online activities in major e-commerce markets.

“In the past six years the existing australia.com site’s audience grew to 6.7 million users, and these people collectively downloaded 40 million pages of Australian destination information annually.

“In 2006, 58 per cent of international travellers used the Internet for information before visiting Australia.”

For further information contact Tourism Tasmania's Communications Unit

(03) 6230 8244
email mediainfo@tourism.tas.gov.au