Tourism Australia has announced the appointment of Denise von Wald to the role of Regional General Manager United Kingdom (UK) & Northern Europe.

Denise von Wald will take up the role with Tourism Australia, based in its London office, from 26 August 2013.

Ms von Wald joins Tourism Australia from Education Adelaide where, as Chief Executive, she has led the organisation in achieving impressive results for the past seven years.

Prior to joining Education Adelaide, Ms von Wald also held management positions at the South Australian Tourism Commission and was a broadcast journalist and producer at the ABC.

Tourism Australia Managing Director Andrew McEvoy said Ms von Wald was a strong leader and communicator as well as a strategic marketer, with solid experience in the tourism sector.

“With a proven track record in tourism and marketing, I have no doubt Denise will be a strong asset to Tourism Australia’s presence in the UK and will be able to continue the legacy of the great work done by her predecessor Rod Harrex,” Mr McEvoy said.   

“Growth in visitation from the UK has been stymied by global economic factors in recent years. However, with the British and Irish Lions tour set to kick off next month, followed by the Ashes cricket series later this year, Australia is set to receive a welcome boost in visitors from the UK in 2013.” 

The UK is currently Australia’s third largest source market for international visitors (delivering 593,000 visitors in 2012)  but is the second largest market for Australia in terms of spend and visitor nights, delivering A$2.9 billion and 22.5 million visitor nights during 2012.