More Australia for young Italians

CTS Viaggi, Italy’s major youth tour operator, is to re-launch a dedicated Australia brochure in late September. It will be supported with a series of training workshops for CTS agents in northern Italy.

CTS Viaggi has more than 183 retail outlets throughout Italy, including strategically placed campus locations.

The brochure comes at a time when there is a general change in the pattern of Italian holiday-making.

With a welcome move away from Italians being forced to take holidays in the traditional August period, more travellers are now taking long-haul holidays in June and September.

Italian tour operators say there is continued strong interest in Australia, with some reporting a growth in forward bookings of up to 20 per cent over the same period last year

There were 16,000 Italian visitors to Australia for the first five months of 2007, an increase of 9 per cent for the same period last year; and 53,200 Italian visitors to Australia for the year ending May 2007, an increase of 4 per cent on the previous year.

You can reach the key players in the Italian travel industry through Selling Down Under, the international on-line trade publication that focuses on promoting Australia.