V Australia will boost Sydney tourist numbers
NSW must boost its marketing presence in the United States or Sydney will miss out on the benefits of new trans-Pacific airline V Australia, a peak tourism body says.
The Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF) today called for more funding for marketing body Tourism New South Wales, saying the new Sydney to Los Angeles service could result in low levels of inbound tourism.
"We are going to see thousands of Australians flying to the United States," TTF managing director Christopher Brown said today.
"But potentially little US traffic to our shores unless Tourism New South Wales has the money to market the state to encourage people to come here."
TTF says the marketing body needs an extra $20 million a year, and the timing of an advertising blitz was now crucial as a new report showed Melbourne had overtaken Sydney as Australia’s most lucrative tourism destination.
"Over the past five years, we have seen a 60 per cent increase in Australians flying to the US, but only a six per cent increase in US visitors coming to Australia," Mr Brown also said.
Tourism Australia today said the US was one of Australia’s top sources of international tourists, delivering 460,000 American visitors in 2007 and worth more than $2 billion to the nation’s economy.
"For close on 20 years Australia has been every Americans’ dream holiday destination," Tourism Australia managing director Geoff Buckley said.
"And while the US is our fourth largest tourism market, it still has enormous untapped potential."
The Sydney Chamber of Commerce also said the decision to base the new airline in the city would result in the creation of more than 1000 jobs including pilots, ground crew and operational staff.
The chamber said Virgin would also invest $44 million into building new facilities in Sydney.
"This is a great win for Sydney and our tourism industry," chamber executive director Patricia Forsythe said today.
The Sir Richard Branson-backed V Australia will fly daily from Sydney to Los Angeles from December, signifying the end of Qantas’ near-monopoly on the route to the United States.
United Airlines is the only other airline offering a daily trans-Pacific service.
