Consumer Marketing

Case study: Feel New in Sydney

Destination NSW unveiled the next chapter of its ‘Feel New’ brand – Feel New in Sydney – in June 2025, which showcased the city beyond the postcard-perfect icons.

According to the Destination NSW Brand Engagement Monitor, in April 2025, 79 per cent of all Australian travellers have visited Sydney before, with Sydney ranked third for consideration to travel among domestic visitors in the next 12 months.

Qualitative research undertaken by The Lab revealed that Sydney was renowned for its incredible icons, but there was a sense that once travellers had seen them the destination didn’t offer anything significantly different from other cities.

The Feel New in Sydney campaign aimed to build on the success of the Feel New Brand launched in 2021 and show a less expected side of the city. It targeted ‘new experience seekers’ from around the country who want busy, full days when travelling. It featured more than 600 Sydney-based tourism experiences across owned, earned and paid media.

Campaign objectives were to drive reappraisal and increase consideration of Sydney as a visitor destination and showcase the city’s unique offering beyond the icons, including world-class dining, stunning natural beauty, exhilarating adventures, international sporting events and a vibrant arts and music culture.

The campaign launched with four 30-second hero films, four out-of-home static hero creatives and six social-first videos featuring and shared by local talent. The campaign was supported by an extensive media plan targeted towards the ‘new experience seeker audience’.

The campaign rolled out across TV, outdoor, radio, digital and social channels from 1 June to 30 August 2025.

View the media release here.

Highlights

• The Feel New in Sydney campaign delivered more than a million completed video views in its first month.
  • Throughout June, the campaign attracted more than 50 million social media impressions.
  • Early indications from campaign evaluation research showed that 50 per cent of people who recognised the campaign said they were ‘more likely to visit’ Sydney as a result.

PR, Influencers and Visiting Media

The PR, Influencers and Visiting Media team worked closely with a broad network of stakeholders during the 2024–25 financial year to elevate Sydney and NSW as visitor destinations.

These included media, influencers and content creators; Destination Networks; local tourism managers across NSW; operators and experience providers; and industry stakeholders including Tourism Australia, BESydney, cultural institutions and other government agencies.

The team engaged with these stakeholders through strategic media pitching, hosting and collaborative storytelling aligned with Destination NSW’s strategy and campaign priorities.

Pictured: Musician Budjerah performed at the launch of the Feel New in Sydney campaign.

The team also managed Destination NSW’s Media Centre and media newsletter, Uncovered, which delivered editorial-ready content to media and influencers globally.

Destination NSW’s Media Centre and Uncovered continued to play a vital role in driving awareness of NSW as a destination in the 2024–25 financial year, through fuelling NSW story ideas and coverage.

Highlights

• More than 152,000 visits to the Destination NSW Media Centre; 130,119 unique users; traffic in international markets up 33 per cent compared to the previous year.
• 2,933 new subscribers to media eDM Uncovered (+53 per cent growth year on year).
• Average open rate of 39.8 per cent for Uncovered eDM (+0.2 per cent year on year), significantly higher than the industry benchmark of 22 per cent.
• 824 new Media Centre registrations (+1.73 per cent
  growth year on year).
• 2:30 minutes average time spent on Media Centre (+6.4 per cent year on year).
• 27,906 Media Centre sessions (15.4 per cent of total Media Centre sessions) from international markets (overall +33.17 per cent growth year on year) and increases in Media Centre sessions across key markets:
  – United States: 5,099 sessions (+2.82 per cent growth year
  on year)
  – China: 1,313 sessions (+13.48 per cent growth year on year)
• Generated 66,972 media stories about Sydney and NSW (from major news and travel publications and social media).
• Media coverage generated was estimated to have achieved the equivalent of more than $441 million in paid Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE).
• Media coverage generated more than 134 billion in earned media reach.
• Almost all media coverage generated was positive in
  sentiment (98.6 per cent).
• 9,170 pieces of media coverage generated included a call to action to Sydney.com or VisitNSW.com to help visitors plan their trips.
• 18,458 total media stories were generated that promoted regional NSW (up 120 per cent year on year). (-17.8 per cent) and unique users (-16 per cent) year on year as a result of Google updates that impacted travel and destination content, as well as a reduction in Uncovered stories produced – two per week in the 2024–25 financial year compared to three per week in the previous year. However, the Media Centre maintained its number one position in share of voice compared to all Australian State Tourism Organisation media centres, a position it has held for more than four consecutive years.

Content and Creative Services

During the 2024–25 financial year the Content and Creative Services team delivered creative campaigns, and produced and managed content including editorial, photography and video for every division across Destination NSW.

The team led the overarching consumer content strategy and content calendar, and managed the Content Library collection.

New experiences, events and operators were showcased through
video and photographic shoots in locations in Sydney and regional NSW during the 2024–25 financial year.

Destination and tourism experience content capture provided new visual assets to marketers, media, industry and government stakeholders via the Destination NSW Content Library to assist them in promoting NSW as a destination.

A new suite of video and photographic content was also produced to launch and progress the Feel New in Sydney brand campaign.

Highlights

• 3,058 new Content Library registrations (up 48.66 per
  cent year on year).
• 11,332 Content Library orders (up 6.52 per cent year on year).
• 70,327 digital assets distributed to approved users to promote and market NSW.
• 5,756 new assets added to Content Library.
• Delivered Vivid Sydney creative campaign and collateral.
• Delivered integrated production of video and photographic assets and creative outputs, aligned to strategic priories across Sydney and regional NSW.
• Delivered more than 1,000 briefs across the editorial, video and photographic teams.
• Design team delivered more than 500 briefs.

Case study: Consumer eDM

The consumer eDM, Somewhere New, continued to build engagement and drive demand and conversion in the 2024–25 financial year, with close to 5.7 million emails delivered.

In March 2025 the eDM program migrated to a new platform, Braze, enabling more robust testing, automation and personalisation to further increase engagement and leads.

The Somewhere New database gained 15,000 new subscribers during the year and delivered results that were consistently above industry benchmarks.

An estimated 96,813 leads to industry were generated (up seven per cent year on year) with an estimated revenue of $831,224 (up six per cent year on year) via conversions on Sydney.com and VisitNSW.com.

Partnerships and International Markets

The Partnerships and International Markets team worked closely with a wide range of visitor economy partners in the 2024–25 financial year to maximise opportunities to grow visitation to Sydney and NSW.

These included airline and accommodation partners, wholesale and retail travel partners, tour operators, online travel agencies and third parties such as Tourism Australia, Study NSW and BE Sydney.

Pictured: Destination NSW signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in September 2024 with GZL International Travel Service, one of the largest outbound travel agents in China.

Aviation attraction and funding

Destination NSW’s aviation funding programs play critical roles in
enhancing the state’s international and domestic visitor economy by supporting the recovery and growth of air services to NSW.

Increasing aviation capacity is a critical enabler of Destination NSW’s visitor expenditure targets. Securing more flights and greater seat availability into key NSW gateways expands the
potential pool of high-value visitors, reducing barriers to travel and stimulate demand across priority international and domestic markets.

Each additional service contributes to high visitation which directly drives visitor expenditure and supports the goal of reaching $91 billion in annual visitor expenditure by 2035.

During the 2024–25 financial year, activity under two aviation funding programs was delivered: the Aviation Attraction Fund and the Western Sydney International Take-Off Fund.

Aviation Attraction Fund (AAF)

The AAF was launched in 2021 to build aviation capacity to NSW. Through securing additional domestic and international routes, it aimed to drive significant economic and social benefits to the state through visitor expenditure and job creation.

Achievements in the 2024–25 financial year included the commencement of new services from Turkish Airlines in November 2024 between Istanbul and Sydney, commencement of new services from Juneyao Air in December 2024 between Shanghai and Sydney, and the announcement of new direct Qantas services between Perth and Newcastle, and Jetstar services between Denpasar and Newcastle commencing in September and October 2025 (respectively).

During the 2024–25 financial year, five campaigns were in market with Singapore Airlines, China Southern, Juneyao and VietJet.

It is estimated that for every $1 invested in the AAF (by NSW Government and the airports), $4.69 of economic and social benefits were generated for the state.

The AAF is also estimated to have supported more than 15,000 jobs directly, and an additional 10,227 jobs indirectly. To date, there has been 46 campaigns delivered under the Aviation Attraction Fund which have generated more than $374 million in incremental visitor expenditure for the state.

Western Sydney International Take-Off Fund

The Western Sydney International Take-Off Fund was announced in March 2025 to incentivise international airlines to fly new routes into Western Sydney International (WSI) Airport ahead of its opening in late 2026.

Pictured: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the official opening of the WSI terminal.

The $16 million Destination NSW-managed Take-Off Fund is made up of $8 million from the NSW Government and is matched by WSI.

It is forecast to deliver more than 162,000 international visitors to NSW and generate an estimated $530 million in visitor expenditure.

In June 2025, the fund secured its first route, with Air New Zealand announcing its intention to fly into Western Sydney from 2027.

Securing routes serviced by major international airlines will provide a direct connection between Western Sydney and the rest of the world, making it even easier to travel internationally and connecting the globe with Australia’s third-largest economy: Western Sydney.

Newcastle Airport MOU

Destination NSW signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
with Newcastle Airport in September 2024 to help the airport secure new international and domestic routes.

The agreement made available financial support to Newcastle
Airport from the AAF, including route incentives for airlines and strategic marketing support.

Newcastle Airport will be supported under Stream Two of the program: Regional NSW Domestic and International Route Support.

The $250 million upgrade to Newcastle Airport, jointly owned by the City of Newcastle and Port Stephens Councils, will provide a new gateway for domestic and international visitors to access the Hunter region and NSW Mid North Coast.

Qantas announced in May 2025 that it would launch a new route between Perth and Newcastle in September 2025, backed by the AAF.

Digital Centre of Excellence

The Digital Centre of Excellence team led Destination NSW’s visitor-facing social channels, websites and marketing technology for domestic and international markets during the 2024–25 financial year.

The team kept Sydney and NSW top of mind for visitors with engaging content and seamless digital experiences, linking channels and data to drive leads, support industry and create a connected customer journey.

Consumer websites

In the 2024–25 financial year Destination NSW’s consumer websites – Sydney.com and VisitNSW.com – delivered numerous infrastructure projects, including international website upgrades and hosting platform migration.

The websites attracted 19.2 million visits during the period (down one per cent year on year largely due to reduced campaign activity).

They generated more than 4.44 million leads to the visitor economy across domestic and international audiences (down eight per cent year on year and 16 per cent below target) and delivered $59.2 million in estimated revenue across domestic and international audiences (down three per cent year on year and 12 per cent below target).

Leads and estimated revenue fell short due to ambitious targets set against 2023–24 financial year results, with the 2023–24 financial year being an exceptionally strong year for the consumer websites.

Destination NSW’s consumer websites maintained the number one average market share among State Tourism Organisations for the 2024–25 financial year.

Highlights

• The consumer websites drove 4.4 million leads and $59.2 million in estimated revenue to the visitor economy industry.
• The search engine optimisation (SEO) content program grew
  organic sessions to VisitNSW.com and Sydney.com by six per cent.
• The Sydney and Visit NSW social media channels attracted 192,335 new followers to reach more than 6.9 million total followers.
• Social channels saw a reduction in saves and mentions, but an increase across all other metrics and they delivered healthy results year on year, including:
  – 31 per cent increase in impressions
  – 21 per cent increase in engagement
  – 21 per cent increase in video views
  – 68 per cent increase in shares
  – Three per cent increase in reach
  – 17 per cent increase in engagement rate
• High-profile moments that significantly boosted virality,
  engagements and follower growth in the 2024–25 financial
  year, and were key drivers of performance and engagement
  include; Vivid Sydney, the TCS Sydney Marathon (with the
  milestone announcement of its new World Major status), the NRL Grand Final, Sydney New Year’s Eve Fireworks and major concerts featuring global stars including Dua Lipa, Dom Dolla, Rüfüs Du Sol, Coldplay and Charli XCX.

Year ahead

The Consumer Marketing department will continue to drive demand for regions and unique NSW experiences during the 2025–26 financial year by creating targeted content and campaigns; collaborating with stakeholders to co-create content, amplify reach and ensure alignment with broader marketing efforts; identifying and leveraging talent and influencers; promoting and leveraging events as key drivers of visitation to NSW; and using data to deliver personalised messaging and offers to potential audiences.

The team aims to achieve 20 million visits to its consumer websites, 4.8 million leads to industry and generate $61 million in estimated revenue.

Website search visibility and authority will be strengthened by continuing to evolve the SEO strategy into generative engine optimisation (GEO), ensuring Sydney.com and VisitNSW.com content remains discoverable and trusted in both traditional and artificial intelligence-driven (AI) search environments.