Australia launches ‘Restaurant Australia’ campaign to boost arrivals from India
ETW Staff – Mumbai
Backed by consumer research which corroborates the new-age trend in India of people travelling on their belly, Tourism Australia has evolved their marketing campaign, ‘There’s Nothing like Australia’ to include a strong focus on exceptional food and wine experiences. In an effort to convert the appetite for Australia as a travel destination into more visits, this campaign is based on the idea of Australia being the world’s greatest restaurant, ‘Restaurant Australia’
The concept of ‘Restaurant Australia’ has been built based on consumer research which identified ‘food and wine’ as a key factor in holiday decision making and the most important emotive trigger, ahead of world class beauty, for influencing people’s destination choice. This research was conducted by Tourism Australia in 2013, in 15 of Australia’s key tourism markets and it surveyed 1,200 Indian customers, who were selected on the basis of their previous long-haul travel behaviour and/ or their intention to travel long haul in the next few years. Indians who had previously travelled to Australia ranked it number one for food and wine experiences amongst all competitor countries.
Featuring dining experiences against spectacular locations, the campaign in India will take an integrated approach, being promoted on various media and digital platforms in two phases, timed to coincide with the planning periods for year-end and Indian summer holidays. Through successful media partnerships like presenting sponsorship of the top-rated television reality show ‘MasterChef Australia’ over the past two years, Tourism Australia has introduced Indian television audience to the diversity and multicultural aspect of Australian food experiences. Recently, there has also been a collaboration with India’s popular chef, Sanjeev Kapoor, to film a 15 part series ‘Out of Australia’.
Nishant Kashikar, country manager, India and Gulf, Tourism Australia, said, “Australia’s food and wine experiences is one of its strongest assets and the growing trend amongst Indians of indulgence in gourmet experiences and food inspired travel is the perfect time for the launch of the Restaurant Australia campaign here. The winning combination of people, place and produce is at the core of the campaign and will be communicated through advertising, PR and content integration activities. The campaign is expected to whet the appetite amongst potential travellers and tempt more Indians to travel for a taste of Australia.”
Some of the top food and wine experiences in Australia showcased through the campaign include enjoying a water taxi ride through the Sydney harbour, pre-dinner drinks before disembarking at Circular Quay for dinner at Quay restaurant (NSW); sailing the Whitsundays, before landing on Hamilton Island for a private seafood lunch at Whitehaven Beach (Queensland); dining under the stars at Longitude 131 to the accompaniment of a traditional Aboriginal dance, overlooking Uluru (Northern Territory); exploring Melbourne’s laneways before enjoying cocktails and dinner at Cookie, ending upstairs for drinks at the city’s popular rooftop cinema bar (Victoria); taking a balloon ride over the Barossa Valley, followed by a personal wine amongst the vineyards at Hentley Farm Winery (South Australia) and oyster shucking in the waters off Great Oyster Bay on the Freycinet Peninsula (Tasmania).
