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Destination DC, the official destination marketing organization for Washington, DC, is pleased to announce the appointment of Canuckiwi Ltd as its representation firm in Australia and New Zealand. Effective immediately, Canuckiwi will manage travel trade strategy, public relations and industry alignment across both countries with their specialist team members.

“Australia has proven to be a strong market for Washington, DC with an impressive 11% increase in visitation from 2016, making it the city’s sixth overseas market. In 2017, one out of every 15 Australian visitors to the U.S. travelled to DC. Although we have been active in the market within the trade industry for a few years, we’re thrilled about the opportunity to grow our media relations efforts,” said Elliott L. Ferguson, II, president and CEO of Destination DC.

Destination DC recently held a sales and media mission in Australia with members from the tourism and communications teams. The group met with over 250 travel trade contacts and media across five days in three cities – Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

“We are so pleased and excited to add Destination DC to our existing client portfolio. Canuckiwi’s focus will be to align and enhance the “Discover the Real DC” campaign under its “DC Cool” brand through cooperative strategies with key wholesale, airline and trade partners, as well as increase awareness with key media stakeholders. Ultimately, this will increase the length of stay in the nation’s capital and contribute to grow the more than 90,000 Australian visitors, based on existing 2017 stats to Washington, DC,” commented Corey Marshall, principle director of Canuckiwi.

With $11.5 billion in development and more than 4,500 hotel rooms in the pipeline, there are many new ways for Australian and New Zealand families to experience the city. The International Spy Museum moves to L’Enfant Plaza and reopens next spring. The Washington Monument reopens next year and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s “Fossil Hall” reopens in June 2019.

“This appointment has additionally allowed us the opportunity to bring Lizzie Doyle onto our Canuckiwi team and work alongside us on the media relations program for Destination DC,” added Marshall.

Video assets sharing the newly created Discover the Real DC campaign content can be found on the dedicated Destination DC YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLzszasXBjI&t=2s