31 October, 2022

“Over a billion eyes will be on us”: Phillipa Harrison talks cashing-in on ‘the decade of Green and Gold’

By Alexandra Coulton

When the FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off on Aussie shores in 2023, Australia will be back on the world stage showcasing its sporting prowess and tourism opportunities to the world once again.

To help ensure our tourism industry can make the most of this opportunity, Tourism Australia’s managing director Phillipa Harrison has joined the star-studded line-up of Football Australia’s Legacy ’23 Ambassador Program.

Alongside the likes of Elizabeth Broderick, special rapporteur and independent expert to the UN, and Paralympic champion Kurt Fearnley, Harrison will bring her expertise to the line-up and champion tourism, diversity and inclusion.

But for Harrison, the legacy program isn’t just a great marketing opportunity, it’s an opportunity to improve the lives of women and girls across the country.

“It’s an incredible honour, and there are two key reasons,” she told Travel Weekly.

“One is professional and one’s personal; I am the mum of two young girls and one of them is mad about football. I think participation in any sport, but in football, in particular, creates incredible opportunities for young girls.

“It teaches them leadership, it teaches them how to play in a team. And a lot of those dynamics that they learn, when they’re playing sports actually translate to their careers and to their future relationships.

“So getting more little girls to get their foot on the ball, I think is just an incredible opportunity for us.”

The second reason is, obviously, from a tourism marketing perspective.

“This is a time when over a billion eyes will be on us and it’s really going to help our recovery,” she said.

Since tourism numbers were decimated by the global pandemic, inbound tourism numbers in Australia have been slowly climbing, but there’s still a hell of a way to go.

According to Tourism Australia’s international market performance statistics, we are still only at around 20 per cent of 2019’s visitor arrivals.

The Women’s World Cup, however, is expected to attract visitors from 32 countries and FIFA estimates it will bring around $340 million to the local economy.

“For us, the opportunity is not just in the event, it’s the long-term legacy; having the opportunity for a month to have the eyes of the world on Australia,” Harrison explained.

“We’re going to leverage that to rebuild our visitation and help the industry recover.

“We are just about to embark on a whole decade of green and gold events leading all the way up to the Brisbane Olympics and its really important that we showcase Australia in a different light and attract visitors and audiences that may not have considered us before because they think it’s a little bit too far.

“Because we know that everybody wants to come to Australia, we know that there are some barriers and distance is probably the biggest one, but these events start to overcome that.”

How can the travel trade make the most of this huge opportunity? Harrison suggests using this time in the spotlight to show off what a holiday in Australia can look like, rather than selling tickets to the event itself.

“That’s our approach to it. And you will see us getting more and more involved, particularly as the decade of green and gold events starts to unfold,” she said.

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FIFA Women’s World Cup Green and Gold events Phillipa Harrison Tourism Australia