Tourism Australia has announced the appointment of Andrew Boxall to the role of Regional General Manager United Kingdom and Northern Europe.

With more than 25 years of tourism industry experience, Andrew has worked internationally across the Middle East, India, Europe and the UK. More recently he was Flight Centre Travel Group’s executive general manager for supply and partnerships in the UK and Europe and managing director for Germany.

Boxall said he was excited to be joining Tourism Australia at this pivotal time.

“I am thrilled to be joining Tourism Australia at a time when we are looking at tourism growth beyond recovery in a region that has an incredibly high awareness of our country and its world-class tourism experiences,” he said.

“Having spent my formative years in Australia before working in different parts of the world, I am looking forward to leveraging my tourism and leadership experience to further develop the business and leisure travel opportunities to promote our visitor experiences to this important market.”

Boxall will step into the role from Monday 15 July following the departure of Sally Cope, who announced in January that after six years she would be departing the role on 30 June 2024 to return to Australia. The position reports to Tourism Australia’s executive general manager commercial & business events Australia, Robin Mack.

Speaking about the appointment, Mack welcomed Boxall to the Tourism Australia team while acknowledging Cope’s contribution in the UK and Northern Europe, which remains a critical region for Australia’s visitor economy.

“During her time Sally has done a tremendous job of overseeing Tourism Australia’s operations in the UK and Northern Europe and navigating the team through a period of unprecedented challenges. We are so grateful to have her expertise on the ground to support Andrew’s transition to the role,” Mack said.

“Andrew joins our business at a critical time as we get nearer to full recovery of international visitation from this important tourism market and towards future of sustainable growth.

“With first-hand experience in both leisure and corporate travel, Andrew will bring both considerable knowledge and global insights that will help us to influence, inspire and drive visitation to Australia.

The UK is the fourth largest market for visitors and third for spend in 2019 and since the return of international travel the numbers have been steadily building which saw Australia welcome 715,800 visitors contributing $3.4 billion annually.