Tourism Australia has teamed up with Imagination Television, the makers of Masterchef New Zealand and Animal Rescue, to create a ten episode television series called My Kind of Place - Australia, which is currently airing on Television New Zealand’s TV1.

The new series features a diverse range of Australian holiday experiences through the eyes of well-known Kiwi celebrities who will each showcase ‘their kind of place’. Each week a different celebrity host will journey beyond the traditional gateways and inspire New Zealanders to delve a little deeper into their number one holiday destination – Australia.

Former New Zealand TV news anchor, Judy Bailey, recalls her holiday memories of Tasmania in the second episode of the series, which airs on Saturday 23 July. During her visit, Judy visits Hobart’s famous waterfront, MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) and Port Arthur, where she takes a cruise of the harbour and an evening ghost tour, meets a Tasmanian Devil at Bonorong Wildlife Park and samples some of Tasmania’s food and wine

Tourism Australia Managing Director Andrew McEvoy said showing Kiwis amazing Aussie experiences through the eyes of their favourite celebrity hosts, which range from well known actors and actresses to sports stars and broadcast personalities, delivers on Tourism Australia’s successful advocacy strategy.

“With just over a million Kiwis visiting Australia each year and 92 per cent returning for more of their favourite holiday destination, My Kind of Place goes a long way to satisfying this appetite for Aussie experiences that are unique, authentic and accessible. Getting well known New Zealanders like Judy Bailey to share why there is nothing like an Australian holiday will hopefully encourage more Kiwis to explore regional Australia and stay a little longer,” Mr McEvoy said.

Other New Zealand presenters in the series include actresses Lisa Chappell and Robyn Malcolm, former All Blacks Josh Kronfeld and Frank Bunce and MasterChef New Zealand judge, Josh Emett.

The 30 minute episodes will be broadcast during prime time to an estimated audience of up to 800,000 viewers; 225,000 of whom are aged between 25 and 64 years, which is Tourism Australia’s target market for New Zealand.

“My Kind of Place will engage with our best prospect audience - sophisticated leisure travellers between 25 and 64 years, with no dependents and a propensity to travel beyond Australia’s East Coast gateways. Each experience captures the essence of key Tourism Australia messages around nature, adventure, coastal journeys, food and wine, all of which resonate strongly with the New Zealand audience,” Mr McEvoy said.

The series will incorporate Tourism Australia’s global brand campaign message, There’s Nothing like Australia, encouraging viewers to visit Australia.com where they will find dedicated content about each region featured, and details of how to make a booking.

In creating the series, Tourism Australia has engaged industry participation by working with Tourism Tasmania and New Zealand’s national airline, Air New Zealand.

“Promotional partnerships like this, involving Tourism Australia, international carriers and our local tourism industry, represent a very efficient and effective way of stimulating demand for travel to Tasmania in our key international markets,” said Tourism Tasmania CEO Tony Mayell.

“We know already that our New Zealand visitors love Tasmania’s history, nature and wildlife so it’s vitally important that we continue getting the message out there that we’ve a lot to offer in this regard, along with our growing collection of arts, food, beverage and adventure experiences,” he said.

The shows will also be promoted using TVNZ’s website and Tourism Australia’s social media channels such as Facebook and YouTube. My Kind of Place airs on TVNZ until 17 September, the key booking time for New Zealanders to Australia.

New Zealand is Australia’s largest inbound market for visitor arrivals. 1,161,800 Kiwis visited Australia during 2010 (up 5% on 2009), spending more than $2 billion. Tourism Australia believes that the New Zealand market has the potential to grow to between $3.4 billion and $4.2 billion in total expenditure by 2020.

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