Melbourne tipped for as hot spot for 2010

Tourism Victoria 11 January 2010

International visitors to Melbourne have increased by four per cent to the end of August in 2009, following a raft of new airline route launches which are also encouraging British travellers to start their Australia holiday in the country's cultural and events capital. www.visitmelbourne.com/uk

Claire Golding, Tourism Victoria's regional manager for UK and Europe said: "2010 really should be Melbourne's year. British travellers flying into our state were up by 2 per cent in August in 2009 but with so many new flight routes, great value launch offers and a range of stunning world class events and attractions we're confident in welcoming even greater numbers of British visitors in 2010."

On 6 December 2009 Qatar Airways launched a new service to Melbourne departing from London Heathrow or Manchester. This is the airline's first destination in Australia and will include three weekly services from its hub in Doha, which will become daily early in 2010. The new one-stop service and a Doha connection time as low as just one-hour will make Qatar Airways one of the fastest airlines from the UK to Melbourne*. www.qatarairways.com

Also in December 2009 Qantas announced it would be increasing the size of two of its Melbourne-London services to the superjumbo A380 aircraft. Flying twice weekly, the service will bring 10,000 additional seats per year to Victoria and will be Qantas' second A380 route out of Melbourne, joining the Melbourne-Los Angeles route launched in October last year. The A380 is expected to generate increased tourist traffic into Victoria from the UK and Victoria's strong tourism performance is expected to continue with Qantas also increasing its Melbourne - Los Angeles from two to three flights per week from 29 March 2010. www.qantas.com.au/uk

At the end of September 2009 Singapore Airlines increased capacity to Melbourne by 10 per cent by introducing an Airbus A380 - the world's largest passenger aircraft on the route between Singapore and Melbourne. Melbourne is the second city in Australia and the sixth in Singapore Airline's network to receive the spacious 471-seat A380. Singapore Airlines now flies 21 weekly services between Singapore and Melbourne. www.singapore.com

From March last year, British travellers have also been able to Melbourne with Etihad Airways via Abu Dhabi. The airline operates a three cabin Airbus A340-600 to Melbourne. It is configured to carry 286 passengers, with 12 in first class, 30 in business class and 244 in economy class. www.etihadairways.com.

In February 2009, Emirates added a third daily flight to Melbourne with connections from six UK departure airports - Heathrow, London Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow. Emirates has also launched a new airline pass with Virgin Blue meaning that visitors to Melbourne can extend their visit to the rest of Australia. www.emirates.com/uk

Air Asia X also began flying to Melbourne at the end of 2008 and other carriers featuring the city include Air France, British Airways, Air China, Cathay Pacific, Korean Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Malaysia Airlines, Air New Zealand, Qantas, Thai Airways and United Airlines.

- Ends -

For media enquiries contact Amy Mallinson Duff, Lucy Pennington, Debbie Hindle aduff@bgb.co.uk / lpennington@bgb.co.uk / dhindle@bgb.co.uk 0207 902 2990

Editor's notes.
*Qatar Airways fastest route from London Heathrow to Melbourne takes 21 hours and 10 minutes. Flight duration is based on the scheduled time and depends on the connection.

---

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• reddit
• StumbleUpon
• Twitter

---

Tourism Victoria case studies

Tourism Victoria news