Sep-Oct 2016 Issue | Business View Oceania

13 “Over the past two years Qantas has been increasing capacity to destina- tions around the world, building our alliances with the world’s biggest air- lines, and investing in our fleet, loung- es and technology to make sure that visitors to Australia get the best possi- ble travel experience. “This new investment builds on the marketing we already do and our part- nerships with state and territory gov- ernments to put Australia’s best foot forward. “Qantas has always been the biggest private sector supporter of Australian tourism and we will continue to focus on growing visitor numbers.” In the past year alone Qantas flew more than three million international visitors to Australia – more than any other airline – helping drive a double digit percentage increase in tourists from Asia, in particular. Tourism Aus- tralia Managing Director, John O’Sul- livan, said he was extremely pleased to have a formal multi-year agreement with Qantas once again. “When you consider the nature of our respective businesses, this is a deal which just makes sense - for Tourism Australia, for Qantas and, most of all, for Aus- tralian inbound tourism. The shared resources this agreement brings to- gether are considerable and we’re very excited about the opportunities that lie ahead to grow international inbound traffic and increase regional disper- sal,” said Mr O’Sullivan. “The plans we have around data sharing are particularly exciting, allow- ing us to be more efficient and effec- tive with our advertising but also ena- bling us to provide consumers with a much more relevant and personalised online experience.” Qantas invests more than $80 million in promoting Australia to the world. In addition to the new partnership with Tourism Australia, this contribution to tourism promotion includes marketing partnerships with New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Western Austral- ia, Tasmania and Northern Territory marketing agencies. This is over-and- above Qantas’ direct advertising and owned media activity across its global network. A recent Deloitte Access Econom- ics report found that, in 2014/15 the Qantas Group facilitated $9.5 billion in tourism expenditure in Australia, or one in every nine dollars spent, sup- porting 105,000 jobs across the coun- try. Qantas and Tourism Australia have collaborated on smaller projects over the past six months, including promot- ing the destinations featured in Qan- tas’ latest safety demonstration video. Qantas carries 27 million passen- gers each year and together with its codeshare and oneworld partners, the Qantas Group offers customers trav- el to more than 1000 destinations around the world.