The Australian National Travel Association (1929–2001) was a semi-government industry organisation which promoted tourism and travel in Australia.
The Australian National Travel Association was formed in 1929 at the onset of the Great Depression by Sir Charles Lloyd Jones (1878-1958), merchant and patron of the arts (who became director of its board of management).[2] Most states had already, or soon had, tourist bureaux though their budgets were insufficient. Prime Minister Stanley Bruce announced the formation of the national organisation on Wednesday 1 May 1929, allocating £100,000, obtained mostly from tourist industries for Australian overseas publicity.
The organisation was put under the control of a committee of representatives of the principal contributing bodies, comprising Harold W. Clapp,[3] chairman of Victorian Railway Commissioners, D. I. Dowell, representing British and foreign shipping interests, C. W. Wilson, proprietor of Scott's Hotel, Melbourne, on behalf of Australian hotels, and C. Lloyd Jones,[4] of David Jones Ltd., Sydney, for Australia's general business interests. In addition representatives were appointed to England and America, to 'make vigorous contact with travel-selling agencies through the English-speaking world'. H. C. Fenton became representative in Great Britain in Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square, London, and the association's representative in U.S.A. and Canada A.H. O'Connor worked from an office in the Adam Grant Building at 114 Sansom Street, San Francisco.
In 1956 the first managing director of the Australian National Travel Association, Charles Holmes, appointed West Australian award-winning journalist Basil Atkinson to reopen the first ANTA office abroad since the war, in San Francisco, to promote Australia as a tourist destination for Americans. After a successful advertising campaign, Atkinson was recalled to be general manager of ANTA, reorganising operations and winning increased government financial support which supported the opening of an office in London, followed by offices in Wellington and New York. In order to allay perceptions of competition between the states and the national organisation Atkinson arranged for all states and two government agencies to have representation on the ANTA board.