Visitors from Hong Kong are being encouraged to head to Western Australia in the coming months as part of a new co-operative marketing campaign.
The campaign is a partnership between the State Government, through Tourism WA, and major airline Cathay Pacific, with the main objective to boost the number of visitors from Hong Kong to WA.
As well as advertising WA holidays through Cathay Pacific’s channels, Tourism WA and Cathay Pacific will work together with a number of key Hong Kong travel agents to sell a variety of WA packages.
Attracting more visitors through the campaign will also support the airline’s plans to offer almost 10,000 more seats on its Hong Kong to Perth service.
The airline will increase the size of the aircraft it uses on the popular route to an Airbus A350-1000 which carries 334 passengers, 54 more than the current planes it deploys on the daily service.
The larger planes will be in use from late October 2019 until late March 2020.
Campaign activity will run until June 2020 and will target a range of visitors, including high-value travellers.
Promotion will include print, digital, social media and outdoor advertising featuring natural wonders such as Hutt Lagoon (pink lake), the Pinnacles, Kalbarri National Park and the Margaret River region.
It will also showcase some of Perth’s newest precincts, and popular local destinations including the world-class Optus Stadium, family-friendly Burswood Park peninsula, Rottnest Island and Kings Park.
The deal forms part of the $12 million international marketing boost announced by Premier Mark McGowan and Tourism Minister Paul Papalia in March, to grow the number of people visiting WA from overseas.
It is hoped the combined campaign activity across a number of separate campaigns, including Cathay Pacific, from the marketing boost will generate more than 6,500 visitors from Hong Kong.
According to the latest International Visitor Survey results for the year ending March 2019, Hong Kong ranked 11th highest in terms of visitor numbers, with 25,000 visitors and was sixth highest in terms of visitor spend, with visitors spending $90 million.
As stated by Tourism Minister Paul Papalia:
“This campaign is an ideal opportunity to promote awareness of our stunning State as a premium holiday destination and encourage visitors to experience Western Australia’s natural beauty, sought-after local produce and unique offerings for themselves.
“Hong Kong is an important international market and this cooperative marketing campaign with Cathay Pacific will make an important contribution towards bringing more visitors to WA.
“Growing tourism is key to the State Government’s plan to diversify the economy, create jobs and develop business opportunities.
“Increasing the number of people travelling here from overseas will help achieve those objectives, which is why we committed an extra $12 million to Tourism WA’s international marketing activity.
“It is the biggest international marketing push in the State’s history and we hope to see thousands more people come to WA as a result of this surge in activity.”
