Travel Pulse Canada along with a handful of Canadian travel industry professionals attended an event at Old Mill in Toronto Monday where Tourism Australia gave thanks to the amazing support Canadian travel advisors have given the Australian tourism industry during this tough time.
"We have certainly seen through January that a lot of our key partners, many of you here and your business, have been very busy filling queries from customers who are booked to travel. You have been very proactive in your outreach to clients, making sure they have accurate information and we just wanted to say a huge thank you…," expressed Jane Whitehead, VP Americas Tourism Australia. "We realize that recent weeks have been very difficult for many industry partners and it has created a lot of extra workload and stress on teams, and we understand from feedback that the work has been very effective. So while there have been some cancellations, a lot of cancellations have also been avoided."
Over the last month news about the bushfires in Australia have made international headlines. Devastating images of injured and burnt animals have been going viral on social media along with sensationalized maps depicting the entire country on fire. The truth is, although some parts of the country did suffer quite a lot of devastation, the whole of Australia was never on fire and in fact, many of the fires were located quite far from the central business districts and major tourist attractions.
"There has been extensive coverage and imagery in the news - and it was terrible in the affected area and we absolutely don't want to diminish that at all - but there have also been some depiction of how much the country was affected that have just been really inaccurate…," shared Whitehead. "..so I think it [the challenge] has really been about trying to counter some of those misconceptions with accurate information."
When it comes to natural disasters like bushfires situations can and do change from day to day, which is why Tourism Australia advised media and travel advisors to use Australia.com when sourcing information. The consumer website is a great resource filled with only the most up to date information on all major tourism regions including those that have been impacted.
"For up to date information on conditions on the ground there are many state and local agencies that are responsible for monitoring and communicating on those conditions. So for people looking to travel or looking to get up to date information before they do so, that website is a good resource," advised Whitehead.
Through the worst, Australian's have witnessed the best, not only through their own communities banding together to provide support for those who have lost family members or homes in the fire but also from the generosity of strangers living internationally who donated money and supplies to relief funds. Australia is a resilient country and the road to recovery is well underway in the areas that were affected, but the country is big and many popular tourism areas are, as their new Bushfire Recovery Campaign advises, 'open for business!' One of the best ways that Canadians can continue to support the bushfire recovery is by planning and taking a trip to Australia.
"Tourism is so critical to the livelihoods of more than 660,000 Australians who work in jobs related to the tourism industry so it's absolutely critical we keep the efforts going…," explained Whitehead. "We are very much now in the recovery or regeneration stage and really looking across international markets to get back in market - with adapted plans and adapted messaging - to rebuild that demand and get people going to Australia again. We want people to put Australia back on their list of destinations to visit this year."
Australia was ranked the world's safest destination for 2020, according to Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection's (BHTP) annual research study as well as being named "Destination of the Year" by Travel & Leisure magazine. On top of that, Australia also topped every major demographic category, including millennials, millennials with children, and mature travellers, giving you even more reasons to continue to push the destination to clients travelling this year.
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