The number of visitors from the Middle East (including Israel and North Africa) predicted by the Tourism Forecasting Committee to arrive in Australia in 2009 is 100,000 – a 15 per cent increase from the previous year.
In the long run, arrivals from the Middle East were expected to perform well over the next nine years, with an average annual growth rate of 10 per cent through to the year 2016, according to Andrew Oldfield, distribution development manager Tourism Australia.
The average growth in visitor arrivals from the region for 2008 was 15 per cent.  Most of Australia’s GCC arrivals came from the UAE and Saudi Arabia, although there was strong representation from everywhere in the Middle East.
“Most of our leisure travellers are from the GCC while we have a lot of people from the Levant visiting friends and relatives in Australia,” said Oldfield. 
“2007 arrival figures show a 60/ 40 per cent split between the Gulf region and the rest of Middle East (including Israel and North Africa). Based on the 2006 split of arrivals at 55/ 45 per cent, this is a 5 per cent increase in the Gulf region’s share of Middle East arrivals,” he said.
The onset of Emirates Airline’s A380, which is due to fly to Sydney in February 2009 and additional flights by the airline to Melbourne in the first quarter of 2009, plus Etihad’s first flight to Melbourne happening in March 2009 will most likely be instrumental in encouraging this growth of visitor interest. 
The focus for 2009 from Tourism Australia’s 17 offices worldwide will be on the destination itself, and it has enlisted Baz Lurhmann to help with its promotional campaign. The Australian writer, producer and director Luhrmann and his Bazmark production team, have produced two campaign cinema/TV spots which will run in all its major markets around the world until mid 2009.
It is a special campaign that was made to address the difficult times that tourism faces globally. The stand alone campaign will dovetail with Tourism Australia’s promotional partnership with 20th Century Fox to leverage Luhrmann’s new epic film Australia, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. Combined, these two projects represent the bulk, but not the whole, of Tourism Australia’s marketing for the coming year.
The objective from this campaign is to ensure Australia reaches its forecast growth rate of 3.2 per cent in international arrivals in 2009 and halts the predicated decline in domestic travel within Australia. Tourism Australia is investing around $40 million in the advertising campaign and around $10 million on promotional opportunities around the movie. It will also develop a follow up campaign and introduce a more long term campaign in mid to late 2009.