Riding Uber’s global wave to sell Reef
VISITORS will be able to ride to the Great Barrier Reef like never before as part of a $3m global marketing campaign designed to breathe new life into our greatest natural asset. The campaign partners with Uber to provide a unique experience, which includes a submarine tour. Sami Harris swims alongside “scUber” which carries Phoebe Smith from the UK, pilot Erika Bergman and Christina Liao from the USA.
YOU’VE never caught an Uber quite like this before.
Far Northern holiday-makers will be able to book helicopter flights and submarine tours of the Great Barrier Reef using the rideshare app as part of a multi-million-dollar global marketing campaign unveiled by Tourism and Events Queensland.
The $3 million scUber campaign was launched in front of the world’s media yesterday.
In a world-first partnership with Uber, tourists will be able to book a tour to the Reef, featuring a car ride to a waiting helicopter, transfer to an offshore pontoon and an hourlong submarine tour.
It will be available in Cairns, Port Douglas and Palm Cove between June 9-18 where tourists will be driven to Port Douglas and flown by helicopter to Agincourt Reef pontoon where the submarine will be docked for the tours.
The experience will set a couple back $3000, but TEQ hopes the publicity will kickstart a new era in tourism for the Reef, in the same way the Best Job in the World campaign put the region on the world stage a decade ago.
TEQ hopes to attract an additional 1.4 million tourists to the Reef and an extra $1.8 billion in overnight visitor spending over the next three years through the campaign, which focuses on key Queensland markets including the US, Canada, France, New Zealand and the UK.
Queensland Tourism Minister Kate Jones said the promotion would help drive extra visitation to the region and smash misconceptions that the Reef was in decline.
“This will give visitors a completely new way to experience this great natural wonder,” she said.
The submarine, about the size of a Kombi, features large glass panels and can dive to a depth of 30m.
Tourism Tropical North Queensland chairwoman Wendy Morris said the scUber promotion would show the world that the Great Barrier Reef was brimming with life.
TEQ CEO Leanne Coddington said the campaign was groundbreaking in the same way the Best Job promotion was when it was launched to international acclaim in 2009.
Uber’s regional general manager for Australia and New Zealand Susan Anderson said the company was thrilled to be part of the campaign.
As well as catering to cashed-up tourists, the scUber experience will also be available to a number of winners in a worldwide competition.