Iconic Australia: ANTA Travel Posters from the 1930's to the 1960's

Travel posters have played an important part in the history of tourism promotion of Australia both internationally and domestically. Between the 1930's and 1960's the Australian National Tourism Association (ANTA), state government tourism organisations, airlines, railways and other tourism operators used posters as part of their promotional strategy to market their products and encourage tourism to Australia. The posters of this time attempted to build an image of Australia as an exotic destination with the luxuries and modern facilities of England and Europe (Spearritt, 1991; Heatherington, 2006). They also attempted to convey familiarity through the images and slogans used, to ensure visitors were not discouraged from travelling to an overly challenging destination. ANTA used a standard poster format which allowed viewers to easily identify the destination by the large print 'Australia' across the bottom of the poster (Heatherington, 2006).