Not Really For Tourists: Tourism Tasmania puts a fresh spin on the travel pitch

Tourism Tasmania is taking aim at the very idea of being a tourist in a new campaign that encourages Australians to ditch the packed itineraries, endless reviews and picture-perfect holiday posts in favour of more meaningful travel experiences.

Titled 'Not Really For Tourists', the campaign launches today (12 November) as the latest evolution of Tourism Tasmania's long-running 'Come Down For Air' platform, positioning the island as a destination for travellers seeking something beyond conventional sightseeing.

And it turns out Australians aren't particularly fond of being called tourists anyway.

New research commissioned by Tourism Tasmania found that 75% of Australians would rather be called a traveller than a tourist, while 57% actively try to avoid looking like one.

Yet 78% recognise classic tourist behaviours in themselves, from obsessively planning every moment of a holiday to chasing the perfect social media photograph.

Tourism Tasmania is using that contradiction as the creative foundation for a campaign that playfully challenges the pressures of modern travel.

The integrated campaign includes five 'De-Tourist Trails', each designed to counter a familiar travel habit, alongside a series of quirky video shorts featuring Australian television personality Lee Lin Chin.

The trails address five so-called 'tourist conditions', including FOMO Fatigue, Planning Paralysis, Queue-itis, Chronic Review Reliance and Performative Travel Itch.

Rather than encouraging visitors to cram more attractions into their itineraries, the campaign invites them to slow down, explore and embrace the unexpected.

The campaign also includes advocate and creator partnerships, along with a competition offering four Australians the chance to win a Tasmanian holiday for two and experience the 'de-tourist' approach firsthand.

A campaign manifesto will appear as full-page advertisements across selected Nine and News Corp newspapers, supported by social placements.

The manifesto holds a mirror to familiar tourist behaviours, positioning Tasmania as an antidote to the pressure to see everything, photograph everything and turn a holiday into another exercise in productivity.

The advertising push will extend into some of Australia's busiest commuter and tourist locations over summer.

In Sydney, a digital domination at Manly Wharf will target ferry passengers, while Melbourne's Southern Cross Station will receive a campaign takeover.

Tram portrait advertising in Sydney and large-format murals across Sydney and Melbourne will further extend the campaign's reach.

The paid media campaign will run across free-to-air television, BVOD, cinema, digital, social, print, outdoor and media partnerships through to the end of March 2027.

'Not Really For Tourists' builds on the 'Come Down For Air' platform introduced in 2019, which has positioned Tasmania as an escape from the pressures and routines of everyday life.

The latest evolution takes that proposition a step further, challenging not just where Australians choose to holiday, but how they behave once they get there.