Australian National Travel Asociation

The Australian National Travel Association

With Compliments slipThe Australian National Travel Association (ANTA) was established on 1 July 1929, 'to place Australia on the world's travel map and keep it there'. Although a proportion of its funding was provided by the Federal Government, ANTA was governed by a board representing the interests of Australian Railways, shipping, hotel and other business that stood to benefit from an increase in tourism. Additional funds were levied from members and raised from the sales of the magazine Walkabout, published from 1934 to 1974. Talking Points on Australia - Melbourne: Australian National Travel Association, 1936

The production of attractive travel posters was only one part of a marketing campaign that included placing advertisements in overseas journals, locating journalists in Britain and North America to provide information to travel, railroad and shipping agents, providing literature on Australia and arranging window displays and film screenings. ANTA sought to be the sole voice of tourism for Australia internationally, wishing to present an image free of parochialism.

In the 1930s, ANTA undertook major promotions of Victoria's centenary and Australia's 150th anniversary celebrations in Sydney. During the Second World War, ANTA closed down its overseas offices, only resuming tourism promotion in 1948. The 1956 Olympic Games were strongly promoted by ANTA, and a number of the posters they commissioned in the 1950s were entered in international competitions. From the 1960s, few new posters were commissioned and ANTA was wound up in 1974.

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