Tourism Australia in new campaign with BA to target UK VFR market

The ‘Visit Soon’ campaign features a short film telling the real life story of Esme Rowling, the eight year old daughter of English parents now living in Bondi.
 

The first part of the film showcases the wonderful and near perfect life she enjoys living in Australia, except for one missing thing – her English grandparents.
 

The film then switches to the UK and captures the reaction of Esme’s grandparents (Alec and Catherine Beattie from Pyrford in Surrey) where they are surprised by seeing the film. They realise the star is their very own granddaughter and are then shocked when they realise they are to be flown to Sydney, courtesy of British Airways and Tourism Australia, to be reunited.
 

Alec Beattie said: “I had absolutely no idea that my family in Sydney had been working with British Airways on this special event. We are overwhelmed and excited at the prospect of visiting Australia to spend time with them.”
 

The original film created with the Rowling family in Australia will be extended to show the moment Catherine and Alec were surprised and will follow them on their journey to Australia. The film will be promoted using British Airways and Tourism Australia’s social media channels.
 

Tourism Australia regional general manager for the UK, Denise von Wald said ‘Visiting Friends and Relatives’ (VFR) represented a large and valuable market, and with the UK economy recovering, now was the ideal time to be launching such a campaign.
 

“We’re delighted to be working with British Airways on this campaign which encourages people living in Australia to invite their UK based friends and family to experience our unique Aussie lifestyle and incredible tourism experiences.”
 

“Australia has consistently been the most popular destination country for British emigrants over the past 20 years. With an estimated 40,000 Brits immigrating to Australia every year, and so many ‘Poms’ now calling Australia home, the Visiting Friends and Family market is huge and one we are very keen to tap into. We know from research that a personal invitation and, with it, the promise of an emotional reunion and prospect of a more ‘local’ holiday experience, is a critical trigger when it comes to getting relatives and friends living overseas to lock in a visit Down Under,” she said.
 

Richard Tams, British Airways’ head of UK&I Sales and Marketing, said that the British flag carrier was in the business of bringing families and friends together, and wanted to find a special way to reunite the one million expats living in Australia with people back in the UK.
 

“We’ve designed a unique campaign to help British Airways’ customers create special and memorable moments with families and friends in Australia. We hope to reunite lots more people this year down under.”
 

Ms von Wald said that the campaign would use advocacy and the extensive reach of Tourism Australia’s social media channels to share the new video and spread the invitation message.

“We put up a post on our Facebook page a few weeks, asking who they were missing in Australia and, in just one day, received 16,000 likes and almost 2,000 comments,” she said.
 

To support the campaign, which uses the strapline ‘Australia has everything…except you’, British Airways has launched digital postcards on its website, allowing families to upload photographs and send personalised messages to their loved ones.
 

Customers can also use the promotional code “visitsoon” in conjunction with the offer, to get 10 per cent off flights to Australia on ba.com’.
 

The airline is also making visiting friends and relatives even more accessible with a special promotional fare of £799 for travel in November.
 

Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) is Australia’s largest visiting segment out of UK, representing 43% of all visitors aged 15 years and above, and contributing 30% (A$910 million) of total UK visitor spending (Source: International Visitor Survey results for YE September 2013).