Tourism Australia and Virgin Australia today announced another major expansion to their marketing partnership to further strengthen inbound tourism to Australia.

Under the new arrangement, the two parties will increase their annual partnership for Financial Year 14/15 to $A8 million, doubling the funding agreed upon 12 months ago and taking the total value of the three year partnership to up to $A16 million.

The additional funds will support the partnership’s overall focus on key inbound visitor markets to Australia.

Virgin Australia Chief Customer Officer Mark Hassell said: “We are delighted to once again deepen our partnership with Tourism Australia as part of our shared commitment to promoting Australia as a world-class destination.

“Over the past two years, we have worked closely to launch a number of progressive and innovative marketing campaigns in key international markets including our recent digitally led 'Someday' competition in the United States, which achieved close to half a million entries.

“Through our expansive network, we have been proud to support a range of tourism events within Australia, including Dreamtime last year and the Australian Tourism Exchange, which saw us welcome hundreds of international delegates on board our domestic flights this week.

“As we enter our fifth year of flying direct between Los Angeles and Australia, the United States remains a strong focus for us and we look forward to working with Tourism Australia to continue to grow inbound tourism from this and other key global markets”, Mr Hassell said.

Tourism Australia Managing Director, John O’Sullivan, said the extension of its marketing agreement with Virgin Australia meant significant extra dollars would be put towards promoting Australian tourism within some of its traditional overseas markets.

“We are very much looking forward to building on an already successful partnership which, last year, saw the launch of our biggest ever airline partnership in the US with the ‘Someday’ campaign, but also included Virgin Australia providing strong support for ‘Best Jobs in the World’, Dreamtime and, of course, ATE14, as our platinum airline sponsor.

“This increase in funding for the partnership recognises the opportunity for further growth from some of our highest volume and most valuable markets. It's a great deal for Australian tourism and great timing, on the eve of Australia’s biggest annual trade event here in Cairns," Mr O'Sullivan said.

Key partnership highlights:

• May 2012: Three year partnership launches to the value of $6million.
• December 2012: Partnership doubles in value to $12million.
• March 2013: 'Best Jobs in the World' campaign launches.
• December 2013: Dreamtime event held in Melbourne, showcasing business events in Australia to 100 international business decision makers and media.
• April 2013: ‘Someday’, highest value joint US campaign launches.
• May 2014: Australian Tourism Exchange, promoting Australia to 600 delegates from nearly 40 countries.