TORONTO — Australia is making moves to increase visitation out of Canada, leaning heavily on travel advisors to bring in more travellers.
While in Toronto this week to meet with travel and distribution partners, Chris Allison, Vice President of Tourism Australia in The Americas, tells Travelweek that 2024 numbers out of Canada showed really strong growth, up 4.8% over 2023. While this falls short of pre-pandemic 2019 levels (around 86%), Canadian spend levels are actually 20% ahead of 2019, indicating that Canadians are staying longer and indulging in more luxury experiences.
“Globally, our visitation inbound to Australia has recovered to about 85% of 2019 levels, and Canada is performing as expected at the moment,” says Allison. “We have 15 markets that we focus on internationally, and in terms of size, Canada is ranked fourteenth. Although it’s one of the smaller markets, it remains one of our 15 priority markets, and those 15 make up 80% of our total inbound visitation.”
To help get Canada back to 100% levels, which Allison anticipates will happen within the next 12-18 months, a lot of stock is being put into the recently expanded air transport agreement between Canada and Australia, which includes an unlimited number of direct passenger flights, enhanced operational flexibility for each country’s airlines, and access to any point in the other country’s territory.
“The agreement is really good news because it removes some of the barriers around how airlines might access the opportunity to add service capacity between Canada and Australia,” says Allison. “We actually have a really healthy airline capacity at the moment, particularly nonstops. We have Air Canada servicing Brisbane up to daily and Sydney up to 10 flights a week during the peak, and also Qantas, which went up from seasonal to year-round to Sydney.”
One major route that hasn’t returned, however, is Air Canada’s Vancouver-Melbourne flight, the facilitation of which has become a top priority for Tourism Australia.
“I think like many airlines, Air Canada is really challenged at the moment with the delivery of new aircraft from Boeing, so they don’t really have a lot of flexibility to be adding extra routes like Melbourne. But I think once they start seeing some of those newer aircraft come in next year, it will provide them further flexibility to reassess the opportunity,” he says.
In the meantime, Australia is likely to continue seeing a bump in visitation thanks to its renowned food and wine scene, world-class adventure offerings and a new crop of hotels, most notably a new 1 Hotels property in Melbourne and the luxury Orpheus Island Lodge, accommodating just 28 guests in 14 rooms on a private island comprising more than 1,000 hectares of national park. Several high-profile events will also put Australia in the spotlight including the Australian Tourism Exchange, this year taking place in Brisbane from April 27 to May 1, and the Australia Marketplace North America on Sept. 15-17 in Los Angeles, which returns after a two-year hiatus. And there’s also, of course, the 2032 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Brisbane to look forward to.
In the short term, with many Canadians reportedly boycotting travel to the U.S. amid an ongoing trade war, is Allison expecting to claim more market share as a result?
“I think it’s too early to tell,” he says. “We’re not seeing any immediate impact, but I think what’s important for us is to continue reminding consumers why there’s nothing like Australia and why they should really consider a trip to Australia.”
Coincidentally, he adds, Tourism Australia will be heading up all its brand activity in the next quarter, including in Canada. And though he says the timing isn’t deliberate, “it is a great opportunity for us to get our brand in front of customers and remind them to consider alternative destinations at the moment.”
To help spread the word about Australia’s scope of offerings, Allison is encouraging travel advisors to sign up for the Aussie Specialist Program, through which approximately 1,000 Canadian advisors have been certified.
“We continue to work with this qualified pool of specialists on broadening their knowledge and enhancing their skills around selling Australia’s different products. There’s a whole range of pathways agents can take to educate themselves, whether they’re more interested in family vacations or culinary or luxury,” he says. “We also have a big focus on recruiting new agents in the Aussie Specialist Program. Our team here at VoX does a really good job with that, and we work with many key wholesale partners to help drive that for us as well.”
Noting how supportive travel agents have been, Allison is making a point to thank them while in Canada.
“We really appreciate the support of the trade here and their continued advocacy for our destination,” he says. “Australia is an amazing destination, and we know that many agents will have customers that are thinking about their travel plans in a bit of a different way at the moment.”
Tourism Australia is represented in Canada by VoX International. For more information about travel to Australia, go to https://www.tourism.australia.com/en. To register for the Aussie Specialist Program, click here.
Brisbane, Australia
