TOURISM AUSTRALIA says its $50 million marketing campaign centred on the Baz Luhrmann movie Australia has generated unprecedented levels of publicity for the tourism industry.

The federal tourism body calculates that 4 billion people read press articles or watched television items that mentioned Australia as a tourist destination and values the coverage at $500 million - more than twice the figure claimed by Tourism Queensland for the Best Job In The World campaign.

"We regard that as a success," the marketing director of Tourism Australia, Nick Baker, said. "The PR investment was $990,000 and to get that level of return was unprecedented."

The tourism body cites other measures, such as people being closer to making a booking, as evidence of the campaign's success. Those people who had seen the campaign and/or the movie were 22 per cent more likely to intend to visit Australia.

Awareness is not an issue for Australia. The chief executive of Jetstar, Bruce Buchanan, told the Australian Tourism Exchange conference this week: "An awareness campaign is the last thing we need. We need to convert them."

Mr Baker acknowledged Tourism Australia could do more to develop "the intention of people to visit and to visit now".

Tourism Australia said cheaper air fares, a better exchange rate, competitive offers - and the Australia campaign - had helped to break the fall in tourist arrivals, which dropped 1 per cent in the first quarter of the year, compared with the global average of 7 per cent.

Tourism Queensland says the Best Job campaign gained about $200 million in PR coverage. A spokeswoman said: "This is a conservative estimate based on what we can measure, as we're not able to monitor all markets. The online aspect of the campaign has also spawned thousands of additional blogs, articles and online discussion forums."

Mr Baker said a decision had yet to be made on what elements of the campaign, such as its strategy of promising travellers a transformative experience and the line "Come Walkabout", would be incorporated into the new campaign which is due early next year.