Tourism Australia has entered a wide-ranging agreement with Luxperience, the annual flagship travel trade event for luxury and experiential travel in the Australasia region. Within the agreement, Australia’s national tourism body will become a key supporter of Luxperience 2013 and will use it to promote unique travel experiences to a global market of buyers from the Americas, Asia, Middle East and Europe.

Tourism Australia Managing Director Andrew McEvoy said that to achieve 6.1m international arrivals and annual growth of 4.6% was a very creditable performance, against the backdrop of a fiercely competitive global tourism marketplace, a persistently high dollar and economic stagnation in a number of Australia’s key traditional source markets.

Singapore Airlines has signed agreements with six tourism organisations in Australia in line with its ongoing efforts to promote tourism to the country. The agreements are for a period of between two and four years, with the total investment for the current financial year amounting to more than A$5 million.

A major international tourism research project into how global consumers view Australia and what most motivates them to visit has been unveiled by Tourism Australia, identifying the barriers and ‘triggers’ to travel to our country.

Tourism Australia, India has launched a new global promotional campaign, ‘There’s Nothing like Australia’ aimed at promoting Australia as a must-see destination with some of the world’s best tourism experiences. Australia has a wealth of assets, natural and man-made, that differentiate it from other destinations around the world.

The Australian government has confirmed it will reduce the current “pass mark” for British citizens looking to get a visa to migrate down under. The current mark for points tested skilled migrants is 65, but this will be reduced to 60 in an effort by the Australian department of immigration to attract more skilled workers from Britain.