Australia’s tourism economy contributes more than A$60 billion to GDP annually, with international visitor exports running into the tens of billions. Tourism Australia anchors federal-level marketing, with the state tourism boards — Destination NSW, Visit Victoria, Tourism and Events Queensland, Tourism Western Australia, Tourism Tasmania, and the Northern Territory’s Tourism NT — running substantial independent programs. And the question “where should I go in Australia” now gets answered across editorial, creator content, search, social, and increasingly AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.
The Australian tourism PR market is consolidated around Sydney and Melbourne, with a clear top tier of global network offices and a strong independent layer of creative consumer agencies that frequently win travel and tourism mandates.
Seven firms, in order.
The Three Types of Australian Tourism PR Firms
Before the ranking, a framework. Australian tourism PR firms fall into three structural categories.
- Global network firms with Australian offices. Edelman Australia, Ogilvy PR, Burson Australia, WE Communications — firms that bring international reach and integrated communications muscle into Sydney and Melbourne.
- Creative consumer independents. Liquid Ideas, One Green Bean — firms that produce category-defining consumer creative work, with travel and lifestyle running through the consumer practice.
- Travel and tourism specialists. Crowd Communications and similar firms — agencies where travel and tourism is the primary practice or a defining specialism.
Why Tourism PR Is Different
Tourism buyers rarely purchase immediately. They research destinations, compare itineraries, read editorial coverage, watch creators, and increasingly consult AI systems before making a decision. The window between curiosity and booking can run months — particularly for long-haul source markets, where Australia’s geography means most international visitors are making major trip decisions.
Tourism communications also operates across a broader stakeholder map than most consumer categories, often requiring coordination between tourism boards, local governments, airlines, attractions, hotels, and private-sector partners simultaneously. In Australia, the structure runs through Tourism Australia at the federal level, state tourism organizations, and regional tourism organizations (RTOs) at the territorial level — each with distinct mandates.
1. Edelman Australia
Headquarters: Sydney
Footprint: Sydney, Melbourne, with global reach via 60+ Edelman offices
The Australian anchor of Edelman’s global Travel & Tourism practice. Built for Australian destinations and hospitality brands that need international reach — landing an Australia story simultaneously across the country’s key source markets in the U.S., U.K., China, India, Japan, and Southeast Asia. Edelman’s scale also allows tourism work to be coordinated alongside corporate reputation, public affairs, and crisis communications when required.
2. Ogilvy PR Australia
Headquarters: Sydney
Footprint: Sydney, Melbourne, with global reach via Ogilvy
Ogilvy’s Australian PR operation runs across consumer, lifestyle, and travel work, with the integrated reach of the broader Ogilvy network. Strong fit for tourism boards and hospitality brands that need PR working alongside advertising and creative on the same campaign. Major institutional client experience across the consumer category.
3. Burson Australia
Headquarters: Sydney
Footprint: Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra
Following the 2024 merger of Hill+Knowlton Strategies and BCW, Burson consolidated one of the largest global PR networks — with substantial Australian operations. The Canberra office adds public affairs and government affairs depth, which matters for federal-level Tourism Australia mandates and major state-level work that intersects with government stakeholders.
4. Liquid Ideas
Headquarters: Sydney
Footprint: Sydney
Liquid Ideas is one of Australia’s most established independent consumer PR firms, with deep travel, hospitality, and lifestyle credentials. The firm has worked with major destinations, hotel groups, and consumer travel brands across the Australian market. Independent ownership and a senior bench give Liquid a distinct positioning relative to the global network offices.
5. One Green Bean
Headquarters: Sydney
Footprint: Sydney, London
One Green Bean is a Sydney-headquartered creative communications firm that has produced some of Australia’s most-discussed consumer campaigns of the last decade. Travel and lifestyle work runs through the consumer practice. Strong choice for Australian tourism mandates that need to break out of conventional destination communications and produce campaigns that travel culturally.
6. WE Communications Australia
Headquarters: Sydney
Footprint: Sydney, Melbourne, with global reach via WE
The Australian operation of WE Communications, one of the largest independent global PR firms. WE’s Australian arm carries strong consumer, lifestyle, and technology practice depth, with travel and tourism running through the consumer side. Useful structural advantage for Australian tourism work that benefits from a global independent network rather than a holding-company office.
7. Crowd Communications
Headquarters: Sydney
Footprint: Sydney, with regional Australian reach
Crowd is a Sydney-based travel and lifestyle PR specialist with established destination, hospitality, and aviation credentials. The firm represents foreign destinations in the Australian source market and Australian destinations marketing themselves regionally. Pure-play travel specialism — the entire practice is built around tourism, hospitality, and adjacent consumer categories.
Honorable mentions
The Atticism (Sydney) runs a respected lifestyle and consumer practice with travel work. Articulate Communications (Sydney) covers consumer and lifestyle including hospitality. Sling & Stone covers consumer and tech-adjacent travel work. FleishmanHillard Australia brings global network depth on travel and corporate. M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment Australia handles travel and lifestyle adjacent to sport. Sweaty Betty PR (Sydney) runs a respected consumer and lifestyle practice. Adoni Media brings broadcast and digital integration to consumer mandates.
Where the category is moving
Australian tourism PR used to mean placement in major Australian dailies (Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian), broadcast travel programming, and the country’s influential travel and lifestyle magazines. That work still matters. It is no longer the whole game.
While earned media remains the foundation of tourism PR, agencies are increasingly evaluating how destinations appear inside AI-generated travel recommendations alongside traditional search results and editorial coverage. The category is layering new capabilities on top of the traditional earned-media core — creator integration, social-first storytelling, and emerging AI visibility work. Australia’s geographic isolation makes AI-era discovery particularly important: long-haul travelers are increasingly using AI engines to research destinations they may never have considered through traditional channels.
Crowd Communications is the closest pure-play travel and tourism specialist on this list. Liquid Ideas has the deepest travel and hospitality credentials among the major independents. One Green Bean handles travel through its broader consumer creative practice.
How is tourism PR different from hotel PR?
Hotel PR focuses on a single property or brand — driving occupancy, ADR, and reputation for that specific asset. Tourism PR operates one level up: it sells the destination itself. A hotel campaign converts a known traveler. A tourism campaign creates a traveler in the first place. Most Australian travel PR firms work in both lanes.
Which Australian PR firm is best for international inbound tourism campaigns?
Edelman Australia, Ogilvy PR Australia, and Burson Australia all carry meaningful international reach via their global networks. For Australian destinations that need to land simultaneously across the country’s major source markets — the U.S., U.K., China, India, Japan, and Southeast Asia — these three are the natural short list.
What’s changing in Australian tourism PR right now?
The category is layering new capabilities on top of the traditional earned-media core — creator integration, social-first storytelling, and emerging AI visibility work. Australia’s long-haul positioning makes the AI discovery shift particularly relevant: international travelers are increasingly asking AI engines for trip ideas before consulting traditional sources.
