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A new tourism campaign encouraging Victorian holidaymakers to visit the Tropics onboard Tiger Airways‘ new Melbourne – Cairns service from as little as $98.95, will be launched this weekend.
Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor said the new $50,000 ‘Get Adventurous in Tropical North Queensland’ tourism campaign, coordinated by Tourism Queensland, Tiger Airways and Tourism Tropical North Queensland would help celebrate and support Tiger Airways’ new Melbourne – Cairns service.
"Since the inaugural flight took off on the 16 September, the service has added an additional 1260 weekly seats into Cairns from Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport," Mr Lawlor said. "Tropical North Queensland has become an increasingly popular holiday destination with Melburnians. More than 190,000 Melburnians travelled to Tropical North Queensland in the year ending June 2010, a 34 percent increase on the previous year. Overall, domestic tourism plays a major role in the Tropical North with 1.4 million Aussies visiting the region in the year ending June 2010, and spent $1.6 billion on their trips, up 13 percent over the year."
Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism and Member for Barron River Steve Wettenhall said these services cater for the demand and are continuing the momentum to entice more holidaymakers to the region.
"The Tropical North Queensland tourism industry has been supportive of these new flights and are eager to grow the airlines commitment to the region," he said. "The new three-week campaign included print, radio and online components and targeted the Melbourne youth ‘social fun-seeker’ market. Social fun-seekers are holidaymakers who look for lots of activities and people to share the fun with and Tropical North Queensland perfectly caters for this market offering a range of adventurous experiences, great events, music and dining," he said.
"The increasing number of Melburnians visiting Tropical North Queensland, coupled with the fact that domestic visitor expenditure to the region increased 13 percent over the year to June 2010, is a testament to the impact of the aggressive tactical marketing campaigns Tourism Queensland has run for the region over the past 18 months. Many of these campaigns offered competitive deals, which has proven to be popular in attracting more Melburnians to holiday in Tropical North Queensland. Queensland’s relaxed lifestyle, fantastic climate and our friendly locals are huge drawcards for southerners looking to reconnect with friends and rediscover the wonders of Tropical North Queensland’s World Heritage listed reef and rainforest experiences."
Mr Wettenhall said the importance of air services into ports such as Cairns couldn’t be understated in terms of increasing visitor numbers for the regional tourism industry. "I encourage Victorians to take advantage of these fantastic deals and rediscove r why Tropical North Queensland is one of Australia’s shining holiday destinations," he said.
Tiger Airways Managing Director, Crawford Rix, commended the support from Tourism Queensland and Tourism Tropical North Queensland for the new services to Cairns. "Cairns is the newest destination to reap the benefits of the low fare revolution we’ve brought to Australia," Mr Rix said. "As Australia’s fastest growing major domestic airline, we’re bringing three new aircraft to Australia in the coming months meaning more jobs, more tourism benefits and more low fares for everyone to enjoy. Our incredibly low fares stimulate demand for domestic air travel and liberate people to fly more often, for much less than ever before. We’re adding services and our network continues to evolve based on demand. We’re hoping that our new services between Melbourne and Cairns will prove popular so we can look to expand further in the tropical north in the near future!"
The campaign deals will be available between 7 – 28 November on www.tigerairways.com
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
