Tourism Australia's fan page on Facebook, which was launched in 2008, now has more one million fans who are sharing their love of Australia with the world.

Tourism Australia Managing Director, Andrew McEvoy said social networking platforms like Facebook allowed people to talk about what they love about Australia and share their travel tips.

"With thousands of fans uploading video, photos and stories it's like the ultimate holiday slide night every day," Mr McEvoy said.

"Word of mouth has always been the most effective way of spreading the word about holiday destinations.

"Now Facebook, and platforms like it, have just made that faster and more powerful than ever before," Mr McEvoy said.

While Tourism Australia posts content to stimulate discussion, mostly it is the fans who do the talking - telling others about their favourite Australian holiday experiences.
 
Mr McEvoy said Australians accounted for almost 500,000 of the one million fans on the Facebook page.

"The Australian people are proving to be our biggest fans – eager to share their local knowledge and holiday tips with others," Mr McEvoy said.

"Internationally, the Americans, Italians, English, Germans and French are also big fans of Australia."

To celebrate the milestone, Tourism Australia has created an animated video just for fans of the page, as a way to acknowledge their contributions. For the next week fans will be asked to tell us why There's nothing like Australia, with a spotlight on a different state each day.

Tourism Australia's Facebook fanbase includes 490,000 in fans in Australia; 75,000 in the USA; 48,000 in Italy; UK - 36,000; Germany - 27,000; France - 25,000; and Switzerland - 18,000. Of the fans 45 per cent are male and 55 per cent are female.

The Facebook page generates an average of 850,000 impressions per day and is occasionally used to drive fans to relevant marketing activities such as the new There's nothing like Australia campaign.

Tourism Australia also post polls (and publishes the results), asks questions, and posts video content of our Friends of Australia telling their great Australian holiday stories on the Facebook page.

Mr McEvoy said Tourism Australia also has a presence on micro-blogging site Twitter, tweeting and re-tweeting Australian destination-related news several times a day, as well as bringing influential bloggers from around the world to the country as part of its Visiting Opinion Leaders Program.

"Word-of-mouth is extremely powerful when you are promoting Australia as a holiday destination to the world, which is why social networking platforms and the online environment have become an integral part of Tourism Australia's marketing efforts," Mr McEvoy said. "It is part of Tourism Australia's push to be at the forefront of digital marketing to promote Australia as a tourist destination."