This is due to the aggressive tourism promotional campaigns, according to its MD

By NUR HAZIQAH A MALEK / Pic By ISMAIL CHE RUS

Australia expects tourists from Malaysia to continue growing to 450,000 this year, thanks to aggressive tourism promotional campaigns.

Tourism Australia MD John O’Sullivan said the launch of a new campaign will boost tourist arrivals from Malaysia to visit unexplored attractions in Australia.

He said approximately 450,000 local tourists are expected to visit Australia this year, an increase from approximately 400,000 visitors recorded last year.

“Hopefully in the near future, we’ll hit the 500,000-visitors mark with the many activities that are being held by not only us, but also by other tourism partners,” he said at the “UnDiscover Australia with Malaysia Airlines” campaign launch yesterday.

O’Sullivan said among the challenges to attract Malaysian visitors is to expose more unknown facts about Australia than the typical famous attractions such as the koalas and kangaroos.

“We know that fashionability plays a big part in destination choice, particularly among travellers from this region, and one of the challenges we face is that people feel they know everything about us,” he said.

He added that the purpose of the UnDiscover Australia campaign is to help to uncover the country’s less explored attractions.

“Do you think Australia is only about the beaches or just a daytime destination? We have Victoria’s Silo Art Trail in the hinterland of the Grampians region and Western Australia’s famous pink lake, Lake Hillier, which you can fly over for views,” he said.

Meanwhile, group chief revenue officer of Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG), Ignatius Ong, said it hopes to further enhance the collaboration with Tourism Australia — which has been a partner with the airline group for the last 10 years.

MAG is the parent company of national flag carrier Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAB).

“Essentially, we want to build on more campaigns with Tourism Australia and showcase them to Malaysians, so we are considering increasing flight frequencies as well.

“We are having quite a lot of visitors from South Asia — which is mostly India — stopping for transit at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to fly to Australia,” he added.

Ong said among the demographics of Malaysians visiting Australia are parents visiting their children who are pursuing tertiary studies in the Land Down Under.

Via the UnDiscover Australia campaign, MAB will offer special airfares from Kuala Lumpur to five Australian destinations — namely Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth — from Jan 24 to Feb 2, 2019.

According to finder.com.au, Australia is expected to welcome over 10 million overseas guests this year.

The country’s tourism sector is currently focusing on its Tourism 2020 goals to grow overnight visitor expenditure to over A$115 billion (RM339.25 billion).