Etihad seals $23m deal to promote tourism in Australia

Abu Dhabi carrier Etihad has signed a deal worth A$30m ($23m) to promote Australia among leisure and business travellers in some key overseas markets.

The agreement is an extension of an existing three-year marketing deal worth A$12m ($9.3m), which expires this year.

The main focus of the deal will be to promote Australia among travellers within Europe and to roll out campaigns in countries such as the UK, Germany, France and Italy.

The agreement will also cover targeted support for Australia’s trade and business programmes, a statement said.

“Through their strong global footprint, particularly within Europe and their global partnerships, Etihad Airways is now one of Tourism Australia’s most important aviation partners, actively supporting some of our most important international campaigns and playing a critical role feeding traffic to Australia’s key international gateways,” said Tourism Australia’s managing director John O’Sullivan.

Etihad and Australia first formalised their commercial partnership in November 2012 and have collaborated on a number of marketing activities since then.

“Etihad Airways and its partner airlines – notably airberlin, Alitalia, Air Serbia, Air France/KLM and Virgin Australia – offer a combined network of more than 180 cities throughout Europe and Australia, positioning us as enablers of sustainable tourism growth, and offering consumers greater choice and better connectivity,” said Etihad CEO and president James Hogan.

Gulf carriers have rapidly expanding their routes and network mainly through codeshares with other regional airlines. Such partnerships have also boosted their passenger numbers and fuelled revenues.

Their ambitious expansion strategies have also led to commercial partnerships with global tourism authorities who are looking to increase their visitor numbers.

Recently Dubai’s Emirates Airline announced that it renewed individual global marketing campaigns with the tourism boards of South Africa, Seychelles and Mauritius.