Tourism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy has resigned from his position to join Fairfax as its new managing director of media events.

McEvoy will start the new role in January, with Tourism Australia confirming this afternoon that it would immediately commence a search to find his replacement.

Tourism Australia chairman Geoff Dixon congratulated McEvoy on the new role and commended him on his four years withn the organisation.

"Andrew has been an outstanding CEO for Tourism Australia, greatly strengthening the organisation both strategically and operationally, and putting in place a strong and committed management team.

"His success over the past years was underlined just last week when Tourism Australia was named Best Destination Marketing Campaign at the World Routes Awards 2013. This is the first time a tourism authority has won the top award for its efforts in air service development and airline marketing," Dixon said.

Dixon said achievements in McEvoy's time as the head of Tourism Australia had included the development of the Tourism 2020 plan as a blueprint for the nation’s visitor economy; the establishment of There’s Nothing Like Australia as a multiple award winning campaign for Australia; a strengthening of Australia’s tourism marketing efforts into Asia; and the massive growth of Australia’s social media assets including Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Weibo.

Fairfax chief Greg Hywood added: “Andrew’s brief is to rapidly develop what is already a core strength of Fairfax Media. Events are a growth sector in the Australian economy and Andrew’s appointment will drive new revenue and greatly enhance Fairfax’s performance in the sector.

Hywood said Fairfax is already a leading organiser of mass participation and corporate events, leveraging our broad audience reach and capabilities.