Following last week's announcement of Tourism Australia's new campaign There's nothing like Australia there have been over 15,000 unique visits to the competition site www.nothinglikeaustralia.com. To date there have been more than 275 news articles on the new campaign including broadcast, print and online media. This includes coverage in the major cities as well as regional centres including major tourism regions.

Next week kicks off our advertising promotion of the competition with teaser advertisements starting from 12 April on Channel 9. Activity includes television commercials with Channel 9 celebrities telling their own 'there's nothing like...' stories, and weather sponsorships across Nine's capital city and regional affiliate stations. Promotions with News Limited online and print will start on 18 April, backed up by ninemsn and radio promotions across the Macquarie Network's 62 stations around the country.

To find out more about the campaign and how to get involved, visit www.tourism.australia.com.

Malaysians take virtual Aussie Road trip
Australian self-drive holidays have grown in popularity amongst Malaysians with 53 percent of leisure visitors from Malaysia taking a self-drive trip in Australia (year ending June 2009). Tapping into this potential, Tourism Australia recently provided Malaysians the opportunity to take a virtual Aussie road trip, with the chance to win a real self-drive adventure for two valued at RM10,000 ($A3,400).

The 'Ultimate Aussie Road Trip' online game (www.australianroadtrips.com/game) was developed to provide a fun and engaging way for Malaysian travellers to learn about 17 touring routes around Australia. The game simulates what consumers need to consider on a real Aussie road trip like deciding the type of vehicle to hire, the friends to bring along and budget management - challenging players to get the highest score to win the grand prize.

To drive participation in the game, it was launched via newspaper ads and publicised over the contest period through PR, online and Facebook ads, search marketing, and an email promotion.
The promotion ran for six weeks from 22 January to 4 March 2010, generating over 39,000 visits to the campaign microsite, 35,000 outbound referrals to www.australia.com and nearly 2,500 entries in the game.

Players were also encouraged to share with friends their favourite experiences on each route via virtual postcards. Over 37,500 consumers were reached via the virtual postcards. Page views averaged 12.5 pages and average time on site was 9.44 minutes, above Tourism Australia benchmarks.

Following the success of the game in Malaysia, it will soon be launched in Singapore, another market that has shown growth potential in self-drive outbound travel.

Asian Pop Star Jerry Yan unveils his Aussie photo album in Taiwan
Asian pop star Jerry Yan visited Australia in November last year as part of Tourism Australia's International Media Hosting Program. The trip, which included Adelaide and surrounds, supported by the South Australia Tourism Commission, was designed to gather photographs for a celebrity photo album and exhibition launched in Taipei last week.

At the launch event, which was attended by over 80 entertainment and lifestyle press, Tourism Australia thanked Mr Yan for the publicity he created and invited him to return to Australia in the future.

The photo album will be translated into a further five languages versions and will be re-launched at a red carpet event later this year in Beijing.

To coincide with the launch of the photo album Tourism Australia held a media gathering, hosting an Aussie lunch for 37 travel and lifestyle media in Taiwan. The group were informed about the Jerry Yan promotion as well as a general update on our public relations projects in Taiwan.

TA and Malaysia Airlines launch 'Only in Oz Holidays' campaign
Tourism Australia, in partnership with Malaysia Airlines, have launched the 'Only in Oz Holidays' promotional campaign. The campaign targets Malaysian travellers who have yet to visit Australia.

As a result of the partnership and collaboration with various Australian state and territory tourism organisations and Aussie Specialist travel agents, Malaysian travellers can look forward to special promotional airfares to Australia and exclusive land packages with bonus offers that include a range of 'Only in Oz' holiday experiences. Details of the offers and 'Only in Oz' experiences can be found on www.australia.com/onlyinoz.

Australian train journeys promoted to Japanese Jukunen
Popular Japanese travel and lifestyle magazine Rashin has published a comprehensive 120-page book covering train journeys in Australia following a visit by the magazine supported by Tourism Australia, Qantas and State and Territory Tourism Organisations under the International Media Hosting Program.

The magazine style book is designed to introduce Australian train journeys to Jukunen (over 55) fully independent travellers. Readers are taken on board The Ghan, Indian Pacific, Kuranda Scenic Railway, Puffing Billy and other rail journeys throughout Australia.

The train journeys will also feature in a Japanese travel series Getting on the World's Dreamy Rails on Japanese television station BS-TBS for one month starting at the beginning of May. The program will feature a range of Australian journeys including the Indian Pacific, the Sunlander, the West Coast Wilderness Railway and the Great Barrier Reef Cruise.

Are you registered to attend Tourism Australia's Market Briefings?
Tourism Australia´s 2010 Market Briefings are currently travelling around Australia. These free events are the place to get up-to-date information on Tourism Australia´s new marketing campaign and what´s happening in the global tourism market.

Register now at www.tourism.australia.com/registration.

Get the latest video news from Germany
Katherine Droga, Regional Manager Continental Europe, provides an update on the German market from ITB held in Berlin during March.

Next week, Jenny Aitken joins us from OZTalk New Zealand to provide the latest update on New Zealand. To access the International Video Portal for Katherine's and other videos, visit www.tourism.australia.com/marketupdates.