NEW TOURISM PUSH IN JAPAN

Tourism Queensland (TQ) has opened a second office in Japan to boost Queensland’s presence in the market, Tourism Minister Margaret Keech has announced.

Mrs Keech said the new office, in Osaka, demonstrated the Beattie Government’s commitment to boosting international tourism.

“The office is being shared with representatives from the Department of State Development and is staffed by a tourism market development manager,” she said.

“Having Queensland representatives on the ground in a major source market such as western Japan is crucial to further boosting international visitors to our state.

“The second TQ office in Japan demonstrates our firm commitment to further boosting exposure, interest and awareness of Queensland’s unique destinations and products to Japanese holidaymakers and business travellers.

“After all, Japan remains one of our strongest source markets with Japanese arrivals at 19.5 per cent of all international arrivals into Queensland in the year ending June 2006 and Osaka one of Japan’s largest cities and a bustling commercial and economic hub.

“From this new office, we can work closely with our trade and industry partners to ensure regional wholesalers and retailers are educated, aware and inspired by the broad range of options for Japanese visitors to Queensland.

”We will be working together with Gold Coast Tourism and Tourism Tropical North Queensland to increase our focus on all of western Japan with Osaka as a convenient base.”

Mrs Keech said the dedicated office, to be staffed by Mr Junji Seto, would also provide valuable support and assistance to Jetstar, which will commence direct flights from Osaka to Brisbane from April next year.

“It is imperative that we champion these new flights in order to maximise the opportunities of this increased seating capacity,” Mrs Keech said.

“It is only 8.5 hours from Osaka to Brisbane so we are confident that travellers, whether they are visiting for leisure or business or both, will appreciate the direct route.

“Tourism Queensland has invested considerable funding in providing support for integrated marketing campaigns to promote these new flights and this assistance is on top of the extra resources we have dedicated to the establishment of the new Osaka office.”

Media contacts: David Smith 3225 1005 / 0409 496 534 or Louise Yates (Tourism Queensland) 3535 5349 / 0419 713 176