In announcing today that the QAN flights QF1/2/9 and 10 between...

In announcing today that the QAN flights QF1/2/9 and 10 between Sydney or Melbourne and London will continue to operate via Darwin until at least June 2022 due to 'Mad Mark' McGowan continuing to close the WA borders, CEO Mr Joyce is spruiking how this will add vitality to NT tourism and how there's been an upsurge in southbound bookings (our expats overseas returning to Oz, or visitors coming here).

But this survey discussed in 'The Age' paints a different picture. The UK pre-COVID-19 was our third largest source of tourists behind only mainland China and NZ:

(Mr Joyce isn't paid mammoth amounts to become the world's leading pessimist but his forecasts and claims increasingly sound at least slightly delusional. He has a record for the last two years of making hopelessly inaccurate forecasts about travel demand. We can all make forecasting mistakes but some of his were wildly optimistic and not evidence based):

London: Londoners were urged to hop over to Heathrow and board a flight to Australia on Monday as Tourism Australia and the federal government launched their campaign to woo back holidaying Brits.

But new data, provided exclusively to the Herald and The Age, suggests that travellers from Britain are in no hurry to visit Bondi or trek the Great Ocean Road: survey respondents ranked Australia last among the destinations they planned to visit.

Tourism Australia’s new campaign lights up Picadilly in Central London, February 14, 2022.Credit:David Parry

British travellers ranked Australia last on their list of places to visit, behind North and South America, Asia, Africa and Europe.

Australia is set to reopen its borders to tourists on February 21 for the first time since the international border was closed in early 2020 following the spread of COVID-19 from Wuhan, China.

Ahead of the reopening, Tourism Australia has taken out advertising space on the giant digital billboard on Piccadilly Circus in central London.

The ad features a kangaroo standing on a golden sand beach at Crowdy Bay National Park in NSW alongside the slogan “Come and say G’day”.

It is part of a $56 million “Come and Say G’Day – Don’t Go Small” campaign being rolled out in the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Canada on Monday that will place the billboard on landmarks in London, Paris and New York...

...A new survey conducted by research firm Redfield & Wilton Strategies suggests Australia has an uphill battle ahead of it to attract back long-haul travellers.

While 64 per cent of 1500 Brits surveyed last week knew that Australia was reopening its borders for tourists, barely any of them plan on taking up the offer.

The survey showed that of the 63 per cent who said they planned to travel within the next three months, 40 per cent said they intended on heading abroad.

In bad news for Australian tourism operators, Australia was last on their list, with a whopping 78 per cent intending to go to Europe, 15 per cent to North America, 12 per cent to Asia and 10 per cent to Africa.

Even South America turned out to be a more desirable destination than Australia, with 7 per cent planning to travel there compared to the 6 per cent who said they would be including Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland or Adelaide in this year’s travel plans.

Western Australia remains closed.

Further, 70 per cent of all surveyed said they have no intention of and would not consider travelling to Australia next year either with cost and distance proving to be the biggest deterrents with 63 per cent saying that it was too expensive