Devastating bushfires and disastrous floods made the start of 2020 the most difficult period in history for Australian tourism with an estimated $4.5 billion in cancellations and lost revenue.

As we picked up the pieces, a global pandemic hit bringing the industry back down to its knees. International borders closed. Airlines shutdown. Events were suspended. Overnight the tourism industry came to a standstill.

With travel impossible our challenge was clear.

We needed to reignite the dream for travel in Australia to provide hope to an industry in crisis by:

1. Increasing Australian's intention to undertake domestic travel within Australian, and

2. Facilitating international audiences to explore and experience Australia to ensure Australia remained top of mind when border reopened.

Global COVID-19 imposed lockdowns resulted in people searching for new ways to establish routines and connection.

With personal interactions limited, the relationship people had between television screens and social media was changing.

Once confined to mobile devices, live streams developed into a form of escape and variety for new occasions particularly living room entertainment with LIVE content audiences tripling versus pre COVID-19 levels.

With travel unattainable, we needed something aspiring travellers could not get anywhere else and reignite their dreaming for the future.

Our Idea was simple.

LIVE FROM AUS

A LIVE virtual Australian Holiday.

Broadcast directly to home-bound travellers in the comfort of their living room, allowing them to explore and experience Australia like never before.

We launched with a live broadcast television event that was supported by a full weekend schedule of Australian experiences streamed LIVE to the world on Facebook and YouTube.

We partnered with Australia’s 3rd largest free-to-air television network to create "The Love Australia Project". A 60-minute bespoke prime-time program dedicated entirely to inspiring their next Aussie holiday by hand picking more than 40 tourism operators to showcase the best of Australia.

Allowing Aussie tourism operators to do what they do best – show the world what Australia has to offer once more.

To extend the invitation to explore Australia beyond television, guides and hosts from every state and territory went LIVE on Tourism Australia’s Facebook and YouTube channels. In total, 32 additional hours of content was created and streamed in a single weekend, giving homebound viewers the opportunity to experience the very best of Australia from the safety of their couches.

The Love Australia Project was the 2nd highest rating non-news program of the day.

As our television special closed, our global live streaming adventure began.

Across the 32 live streams, viewers experienced feeding crocs in Darwin, scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, a chopper flight over the Kimberley, exercising with Chris Hemsworth’s trainers in Byron Bay, cuddling koalas in Currumbin, parading with penguins on Phillip Island, discovering dreamtime stories in Shark Bay and watching the sunset on Uluru.

All content was produced and premiered LIVE, giving viewers a unique chance to experience and interact with the most breathtaking parts of Australia from anywhere in the world.

Over 40 countries demonstrated their intent to visit through every comment, share, like and love as millions of homebound people around the world joined us for a virtual holiday experience around Australia.

The Love Australia Project spoke directly to 1.27 million Aussie viewers and trended #1 nationally on Twitter.

The world took up the invitation to travel with 100,000+ people signing up for LIVE viewing reminders.

And they didn’t miss out! 6.6 million live, real time views through LIVE streaming and 34 Million video views within 2 weeks.

But most importantly for the industry and operators doing it tough, we increased Australian’s intention to undertake domestic travel.

+10% increase in those ‘very likely’ to undertake domestic travel when restrictions lifted (pre and post brand lift study).

Demand for Australia through booking partners increased +3%. The first positive change week on week following 12 weeks of falling demand. Kickstarting sustained demand growth for 6 consecutive weeks. (Adara’s Data Co-op - Expedia, Booking.com etc).

By inspiring the world to dream, our epic holiday gave hope to an industry facing an uncertain year ahead.