Australia is a hot destination for international tourists. Up to the end of April 2017, Tourism Australia states that 8.46 million international tourists visited Australia. With such a huge variety of people coming to the country, figuring out the best way to engage with them before they arrive can be a challenge.

Our park is located a 40-minute drive south from Ballina airport, putting us within close range to a central tourist arrival point. While most of the clients we get are local tourists, like the grey nomads and families, we do reach out to international tourists too.

Winning over international tourists is an absolute must for anyone working in the accommodation industry. Here are a few hacks and tricks you can use to make the most of this lucrative market:

Instagram
Instagram is one of the most powerful visual tools you can use for accommodation owners. People love to see the amazing sites Australia has. It’s also free advertising for your park or accommodation business. We make sure we search popular hashtags and check out which images respond well with users of the platform, and replicate this in our own area, profiling people to see what we have on offer in our neck of the woods.

Brochures at Drop-Off Points
Our park makes sure that we have glossy flyers available at all drop-off points that tourists go through in the area. While a lot of International tourists will have already chosen their accommodation before they arrive, having a point for those stragglers or the ones who are a little bit unorganised can be a great pay off.

Promoting Local Tourist Attractions
Using your social media platform to promote the local attractions will only increase the likelihood of drawing international tourists to your accommodation. We’ve found that people love the local landscape, and the animals, especially kangaroos and koalas. We visit the beaches in our area, the local bushland and the town itself, and they all do well online. We make sure to capture these places at different times of the day and night to really show them off.
These simple and easily affordable (most of them are in fact free) can help you to promote your area and your accommodation business to international guests, and bring new visitors to your area at all times of year.