Video Globetrotter

In its latest push in the digital realm Tourism Australia is partnering with YouTube to support the second YouTube Symphony Orchestra, which will travel to Australia in 2011.

Today’s announcement of the visit follows the successful YouTube Symphony Orchestra event in 2009 that saw 90 musicians from 30 countries play a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall in New York as well as attracting 25 million views from 226 countries to the Symphony channel (youtube.com/symphony).

Tourism Australia Managing Director, Andrew McEvoy said Tourism Australia was delighted to be supporting YouTube in this exciting initiative.

“Tourism Australia is leading the way in digital marketing to promote Australia around the world as a travel destination and this partnership is a perfect fit with our activities,” Mr McEvoy said.

“While TV, print and cinema advertising remain important, our organisation has long been at the forefront in promoting Australian holidays in the digital space – and we continue to explore new opportunities for taking our tourism message to the world.

“The partnership with YouTube offers an opportunity to further expand Tourism Australia’s presence online to demonstrate why There’s nothing like Australia in a very engaging and innovative way.

“It is a chance to also broaden people’s knowledge about the depth of experiences available to travellers particularly around Australia’s music, arts and culture,” Mr McEvoy said.

Tourism Australia will support the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 initiative through its global public relations activities such as the international media hosting and visiting opinion leader programs.

YouTube is the number one site for online video and the fourth largest website in the world, with 300 million plus unique users per month, 2 billion video streams a day, and 24 hours of video content uploaded per minute.

YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 includes online auditions open to musicians around the world including Australia, from 13 October to 28 November 2010. An expert panel from leading orchestras around the world will select the semi finalists from all the entries for the YouTube community to cast their vote online from 10 to 17 December 2010 before announcing the musicians who are selected from this semi finalist group on 11 January 2011.

The musicians selected for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 will be invited to a week of rehearsals and master classes at an orchestra and summit at Sydney Opera House on 20 March 2011, culminating in a performance conducted by Grammy Award-winning conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. The performance will also be streamed live globally.

Australia.com – one of the Top 5 National Tourist Office sites in the world based on Hitwise information. Traffic to the site grew 50% year on year to 9.8 million unique visitors in 2008/09 and then by 81% in 2009/10 to 18 million.
There’s nothing like Australia campaign – largest user generated content activity in Australia with close to 30,000 published entries.
Launch of video channel in YouTube in June 2010 – one of the top 3 channels viewed in the travel category in the US, Canada, UK and NZ.
Facebook fan page – biggest country page globally with 800,000 plus fans and second largest fan page in Australia (AC/DC is first).
Viral video ‘Trip in a minute’ – over 550,000 views online.
Walkabout Planner iPhone app – launched June 2010 and has had 6,000 plus downloads since launch.
Over 90 digital marketing campaigns completed over the last 12 months to support campaigns in region.

For further information contact Kim Moore, Tourism Australia, Ph: (02) 9361 1306 / 0419 165 562

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Tourism Australia Invites Travelers To Find Out Why
There’s Nothing Like Australia

Americans Encouraged to Submit Their Own Australian Experiences for a Chance to Win a Trip Down Under

Los Angeles, September 8, 2010 – “There's nothing like sharing a few drinks with friends overlooking spectacular Sydney Harbour.” “There's nothing like snorkeling with my friend Wally in the Great Barrier Reef. The huge Maori Wrasse is a bit slimy and smooth with lots of colours.”” “There’s nothing like the view to Antarctica from Remarkable Rocks on Kangaroo Island.” “There's nothing like going on the back of a camel at dawn to see the sunrise in the heart of my beloved Australia - Uluru.”

These are just a few of the unique and iconic experiences to be found in Australia and the foundation for Tourism Australia’s (TA) new campaign, “There’s nothing like Australia.”

With research showing that 80 percent of Aussies want to promote their country as a travel destination, Australians were invited to submit photos and brief descriptions of their favorite experiences. More than 29,000 submissions were received in just one month and an interactive map was created to highlight them.

The map is searchable by experience type and keyword. The map is now available for Americans to search with 3,500 experiences featured, information on trip planning and sample itineraries.

Now the call is out to U.S. travelers to help further populate the country map by uploading their own photo and up to 25 words describing their “There’s nothing like Australia” experience for a chance to win a trip to Australia valued at USD $10,000. The contest timeline is as follows:

“There’s nothing like looking up at an Outback sky and feeling as if you can run your hands through the stars of the Southern Hemisphere,” said Tourism Australia Regional General Manager, Daryl Hudson. “Anyone who has been to Australia knows there are magical experiences that can’t be had anywhere else. We look forward to sharing and seeing the moments that have most captivated our travelers.”