The Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson AM MP, today launched Tourism Australia's "There's Nothing Like Australia" global marketing campaign.
The new campaign, timed to capitalise on the return of consumer confidence, invites Australians to share their favourite place or experience by loading personalised images and stories online.
Minister Ferguson said: "The laconic Australian style holds great appeal for our international visitors. Australians travelling domestically know a lot about this big country so it makes sense to engage them directly in the campaign to promote Australia internationally.
"Ever since the Paul Hogan campaign in America, we've known that travellers not only from the US but around the world want to visit Australia. This campaign is designed to stimulate private sector investment in converting that desire into an Australian visit.
"Business investment in this campaign will play a large part in its success and longevity."
The campaign will have two phases. The first phase is an online social networking campaign inviting Australians to upload their own images and stories. The second phase involves an international campaign where these entries will be used to create a multimedia campaign including an interactive map, a television commercial, cinema advertisements and a print campaign which can be translated for different markets.
Minister Ferguson said: "The performance of the Australian Government and Tourism Australia's marketing activity speaks for itself. Last year, despite the global economy contracting for the first time since World War II, Australia's tourism industry outperformed many of its competitors.
"Despite a decline in other international markets of up to 6 percent, we sustained our international visitor numbers at 5.6 million. Our visitor nights increased by 6 per cent and expenditure rose by 5 per cent.
"This outstanding result reflects the Australian Government's decision to ensure Tourism Australia maintained its presence in international markets throughout the Global Financial Crisis.
"This campaign, along with the soon to be released Building Brand Australia Program, is part of a single approach by the Australian Government to market Australia as a place to visit, live, work and do business.
"While there will always be a need to stimulate demand, the Australian Government, through the National Long Term Tourism Strategy, has also made a commitment to advancing some of the industry's long-term supply side issues. We need to build the competitiveness and productivity of the industry through unlocking investment in tourism infrastructure, such as hotels and airports, removing some of the barriers to workforce mobility, rewarding quality through a National Tourism Accreditation Framework, and improving Indigenous tourism employment opportunities.
"The Australian Government is pleased to be helping the tourism industry make an even stronger contribution to our economic prosperity."