Tourism Australia and Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, have deepened their strategic marketing partnership with a significant increase in joint funding for the promotion of tourism to Australia in overseas markets.

Under the new arrangements, Tourism Australia and Etihad Airways will quadruple their spend in the 2014/15 season for what will become their strongest ever push to promote Australia to international leisure and business travellers.

This doubles the total value of the original three-year, A$6 million marketing agreement signed in December 2013 to A$12 million.

This additional funding covers a range of joint marketing activities including support for Tourism Australia’s Restaurant Australia campaign, its international media hosting program, Australian Tourism Exchange, and targeted business events in the UK and Europe.

One of the first initiatives funded under the expanded agreement was the recent UK launch of Tourism Australia’s Restaurant Australia campaign, where Australia House in London was transformed into an Australian-themed ‘pop up’ restaurant.

A major broadcast initiative, to air in the UK in early 2015, is also being planned by the partners.

Tourism Australia managing director, John O’Sullivan, pointed to the airline’s recent Perth launch and decision to deploy one of its first Airbus A380 aircraft between Abu Dhabi and Sydney as evidence of the airline’s continued expansion plans and commitment to the Australian market.

“Etihad Airways is one of Tourism Australia’s most important aviation partners, playing a critical role feeding traffic to Australia’s key gateways, via the airline’s Abu Dhabi hub,” he said.

“The work we’ve done so far with Etihad Airways has proved extremely successful for both parties, including targeted marketing campaigns in the UK, Germany and France, as well strong support for key Australian trade events such as this year’s Australian Tourism Exchange, held in Cairns.

“Etihad Airways may be relatively young but is growing very quickly, with aggressive expansion plans which include Australia, where the airline already enjoys a strong presence.

“We very much look forward to extending this positive and mutually beneficial working relationship,” O’Sullivan said.

Tourism Australia first announced a global Memorandum of Understanding with Etihad Airways in December 2013 worth a total of A$A6 million over three years.