Chief Funster Finishes Best Job in the World as NSW Youth Visitor Numbers Hit Record High

New South Wales Best Job in the World winner, Andrew Smith, will hang up his Chief Funster hat this week, after six months of promoting Sydney and NSW – just as new figures reveal youth visitor numbers to NSW have reached an all-time high.As the NSW Chief Funster, Andrew has been journeying around the State, discovering why it is the most fun place on earth, and documenting and sharing his experiences with the world via social media.

Efforts of the Californian native, paired with broader Destination NSW campaign activity targeting the youth sector internationally, have delivered very positive initial results.

More than 12 million impressions were generated across digital and social media during the Chief Funster’s six-month tenure.One of the most popular Chief Funster videos, featuring a compilation of fun moments in NSW, has been watched by more than 103,000 people, while his posts and photos on Facebook received almost 240,000 likes, shares and comments.

Coinciding with the Best Jobs campaign, NSW received the highest number of youth visitors since the current International Visitor Survey (IVS) began in 2006, with a 5 per cent spike to 999,200 for the year ending March 2014, according to Tourism Research Australia.The number of nights spent in NSW by youth travellers also increased by 5 per cent during the period, to 43.1 million – up by just shy of two million.

The key component of the Chief Funster campaign was The Funster Experiment – a challenge for Andrew to uncover 802,000 moments of fun, one for each square kilometre of the State.Fun moments adding to the tally included: 2,105 steps taken while climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge; 1,500 stomped grapes in the Hunter Valley; two hot laps with The Stig at Top Gear Festival Sydney; 60 seconds of freefall skydiving in Wollongong; and seeing 18,000 Elvis impersonators at Parkes Elvis Festival.

The campaign also tied in major international partnerships with MTV to generate a series of short films and digital media content, and STA Travel to promote NSW work, study and play opportunities to youth travellers in USA, UK, Germany, Singapore and Japan.