Ipswich’s recent tourism success has come from thinking differently, researching our audience and challenging conventional marketing.

Our goal – increase Domestic Overnight Visitation. Our ‘Human Wanted’ campaign embraced new technology and aligned with Australia’s #1 website – Google Maps – usually applied to National Parks but we became the first region in the Southern Hemisphere to map our visitor precincts, walks and highlights. The journey to create this new visitor resource became a narrative for online audiences to maintain their interest over a year, build awareness, market the destination and reap free media coverage in the process.

396,000 domestic overnight visitors
equating to $2.8B in spend

2,414km or 3 million steps in 90 days loaded up with an 18kg backpack for the Google Trekker gear. 230 brave souls signed up; 8 were interviewed; one ideally fitted the bill – Josh ‘The Bear’ Kerr – an activities guide from Spicers Resort in Ipswich Region. Josh soon became a rock star – or at least a star of rock climbing as he scaled the summits, navigated the rivers, visited the raceways and attractions, explored the 6,500 hectares of conservation land and followed the heritage trails through the inner city precincts of Ipswich. 57 locations in total were trekked.