This April, Australia is hoping to welcome some international travelers as the country has been relatively quiet for those from abroad.
According to government officials, their goal of yearly tourism revenue was not met last year due to a lack of visitors from overseas countries. While there were many people who traveled on cruises and visited multiple cities across the mainland, there just weren’t enough tourists visiting one destination in particular: Australia.
“It’s particularly sad because we’re such a beautiful country.” commented one politician after hearing about the news of low confidence among vacationers coming here this year. “People say they don’t want to come because there are already so many people at popular destinations, but I’m pretty sure it’s been more than enough since their last visit.”
The country suffered a loss of $300 million dollars in tourism revenue due to the lack of foreign tourists coming here. As for now, government officials are doing everything they can to bring people from overseas back into their land by promoting it with various campaigns and advertisements across different forms of media. However, most are skeptical about whether the efforts will have lasting effects on potential visitors.
“It’s not that I don’t want to come here again because it’s an amazing place, but I haven’t seen much of Australia besides Sydney so there isn’t really any point for me to come again.” commented one visitor who has only been here once before “I feel that you should experience different parts of the country to get a better understanding, and since I haven’t been everywhere, I don’t really feel like coming back at the moment.”
This may be discouraging for government officials who have already invested in many promotional campaigns including ads on popular shows airing in foreign countries. However, there is still hope as local businesses here in Australia are willing to invest in more advertisements themselves in an attempt to hopefully bring people from overseas back into their land. “I know it’s going to take a lot of effort but we just have to try harder this time around.” commented one manager from a local restaurant. “We’re going to need more people spread out across the country if we want tourists visiting Sydney again so that they can experience our great country. If they like what they see, hopefully we can bring them back here again.”
With the hopes of bringing people back to Australia, officials are optimistic that this is just a small set-back in the grand scheme of things for tourism in this country. However, there is still some concern about how much work it will take to get people from overseas to visit us once more.
“It’s not an easy process getting someone interested in visiting your country in the first place.” said one observer who has seen many campaigns fail in the past “Having only visited countries before where I was constantly bombarded with advertisements and social media posts, I feel like if you don’t catch someone’s interest within their first visit, then they probably won’t be returning any time soon. I’m not saying that we should stop trying though.”
With their efforts slowly starting to grow in numbers, tourism officials and local business owners alike are getting more and more hopeful about the future of bringing people from overseas back into Australia. “I think if everyone really tries together this time around, we can do it!” commented one optimistic businessman when asked about his thoughts on whether or not their efforts will create lasting effects. “It’s going to take a lot of time and effort but I think in the long run, we’ll get what we’re looking for.”
