Sydney- Australian tourism officials are hoping that a new advertising campaign linked to the feature film Australia, starring local actors Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, will bring visitors flocking to the continent.

Tourism Australia managing director Geoff Buckley said Wednesday he hoped the television commercials, one featuring New York and the other Shanghai, would tug at the heartstrings of the international traveller.

"We think it will remind people why holidays are important and that an Australian holiday will give them an experience that will change them, change their lives," he told reporters at the campaign launch in Sydney.

The 50-million-Australian-dollar (32-million-US-dollar) campaign created by Australia film director Baz Luhrmann replaces the failed Where the Bloody Hell Are You? campaign.

It features an Aboriginal boy inviting stressed city couples to come "walkabout" in the far north of Australia. Walkabout is defined as a rite of passage for indigenous people that sees them take a journey in the Outback.

"To find yourself sometimes you need to lose yourself. In Australia, they call this going walkabout," the ads say.

While neither Kidman nor Jackman appear in the campaign - and locations are foreign cities in modern times - Buckley said the connection with the film Australia was that the leading couple found romance, and their true selves, by taking a journey in the Outback.

Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson said Luhrmann's film "has the capacity to redefine the way Australians and the rest of the world see Australia as a destination, and it's up to all of us to capture that potential for the tourism industry."

Australia is due for release November 26. (dpa)