A sense of place.
And a sense of purpose.
Travel content with a difference.
Whether you need a few website pages or want a whole content ecosystem developed from scratch, I can help you.
Do you have a clearly defined content strategy? Great, brief me and I'll deliver content that achieves your objectives. If you have a goal but aren’t sure how to get there, I'll work with you to find a cost-effective approach.
With decades working with some of the best creatives in the business, I can also engage and manage a large team of content creators. I can work with your talent pool or I can call on a trusted network of specialist travel writers, gun editors and top designers and photographers I’ve personally vetted as reliable and client-focused.
Whatever the size of the project, I’ll work with you to develop focused content that showcases your offering and builds trust in your brand.
Tourism Australia content marketing campaign
Developing content hubs for Australia.com.
I delivered:
Seventy-five targeted articles plugging gaps in Tourism Australia’s Australia.com ecosystem.
The project:
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic and Australia’s borders closing to international travellers, Tourism Australia was tasked with marketing the country’s destinations to domestic travellers rather than its usual international audience.
As an external commissioning editor, I worked closely with Tourism Australia’s global content team on a content marketing campaign rolled out on Australia.com and amplified through the organisation’s social platforms. This involved identifying gaps in the Australia.com ecosystem, responding to keyword gap analyses produced by Tourism Australia’s SEO agency, ideating articles, generating comprehensive reverse briefs and commissioning specialist travel writers.
The result:
• Three new content hubs highlighting Australia’s wellness travel offerings, sustainable travel and LGBTQIA+ travel experiences.
• A reworked Indigenous travel content hub, with hub and spoke content developed in consultation with travel writers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent.
• A suite of other targeted content rolled out on Australia.com over a six-month period. Key content pillars included luxury travel; romance; and art, design and shopping.
“What I like most about working with Mark is that he shapes his approach around making your life easier, from helping evolve the brief through to managing subcontractors to get large-scale projects done. With his ability to write and edit a range of article styles he'll have your stories jumping off the page.”
– Joleen Booth, head of content, Tourism Australia
Destination NSW Media Centre launch
Pre-launch content planning and development.
I delivered:
More than 300,000 words of editorial content, packaged with curated images, for the launch of Destination NSW's Media Centre website.
The project:
State government agency Destination NSW wanted to build a Media Centre website from scratch. The site would help media professionals create editorial content promoting travel to Sydney and regional New South Wales.
After winning the tender for the content development project, I worked with Destination NSW’s PR & Visiting Media team on a content audit of recent newsletters, listicles and PR campaigns. We identified material that could be repurposed as editorial for the website, and created a comprehensive pre-launch content plan.
I then engaged and managed a dozen editors to rewrite and repurpose this existing content into editorial-ready image and copy packages. I also commissioned around two dozen writers and engaged subeditors and an image researcher to produce 90 new content packages. And I developed a content calendar for the PR & Visiting Media team to continue the build-out of the website after launch.
The result:
• The Media Centre website launched on schedule with the largest collection of content assets of any tourism board in the world. (Source: Destination NSW press release, March 9, 2021.)
• After the launch, Destination NSW engaged Journeyism to work on another two major Media Centre content development projects.
• In the first full financial year after launch, the Media Centre attracted more than 164,000 visits, exceeding the annual goal of 100,000 by more than 64%, and 138,410 unique users, exceeding the goal by more than 73%. (Source: Destination NSW 21-22 annual report.)
• In the following financial year, Media Centre articles were shared 13,465 times, a 56% year-on-year increase, and had 298,190 views, a 19.2% year-on-year increase. (Source: Destination NSW 22-23 annual report.)
Visit Lake Macquarie website refresh
Website content redevelopment
As part of a major overhaul of its Visit Lake Macquarie website, Lake Macquarie City Council engaged me to write a series of landing and content pages positioning the region, a 90-minute drive north of Sydney, as a must-visit destination for domestic and international travellers.
I delivered a suite of search-optimised evergreen tourism content showcasing the largest saltwater lake in the southern hemisphere. After this copy had been rolled out on the redesigned and relaunched Visit Lake Mac site, I was engaged on a second content project to create a series of blogs to increase overall destination awareness. Blog topics included Aboriginal cultural tourism, accessibility, the lake’s meetings and events offerings, and car-free stays on the lake.
Signature Experiences of Australia media kit
Media kit content development and project management.
I delivered a 50-page media kit for Signature Experiences of Australia, a marketing body created by Tourism Australia to promote some of Australia’s most exceptional experiences to international trade and media.
Signature Experiences of Australia is made up of eight collectives: Luxury Lodges of Australia, Discover Aboriginal Experiences, Ultimate Winery Experiences Australia, Australian Wildlife Journeys, Great Walks of Australia, Cultural Attractions of Australia, Great Fishing Adventures of Australia and Great Golf Courses of Australia.
Working with the executive officers of each collective and Tourism Australia’s general manager of experiences, I ideated and wrote or commissioned a series of features highlighting each collective’s hero travel offerings. I also updated the overviews and news sections for each collective, and steered the pages through Tourism Australia’s approval process.
JNTO x Qantas x Aman Resorts marketing campaign
Integrated commercial content campaign.
I delivered:
High-value editorial content and sponsored content supporting a six-figure destination marketing campaign across Vogue Australia and News Corp publications.
The project:
Japan National Tourism Organization, together with Qantas, sought to showcase Japan as a luxury destination to AB audiences by targeting Vogue's readership. As Vogue’s travel editor, I developed story ideas that responded to the key content pillars in JNTO's brief.
Working with a prefectural tourism board and the Aman Resorts communications team, I travelled along an ancient pilgrimage route through the mountains below Nara to Aman's newly opened spa retreat, experiencing Japan’s famous omotenashi style of hospitality along the way in temple lodgings and ryokan.
The result:
• A Vogue travel feature highlighting key JNTO content pillars and Qantas’s recently launched service to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.
"Thank you so much for this – it’s a beautiful feature that describes the resort so wonderfully. We hope we will have an opportunity to welcome you to another Aman soon – the doors are open!"
– Anna Nash, chief communications officer, Aman
• A series of sponsored content pieces on travelling in Japan for the national newspaper travel insert Escape, including a story about staying in temple lodgings along a UNESCO World Heritage-listed pilgrimage route.
• A 16-page luxe guide to Japan, inserted into a print issue of Vogue and distributed as a standalone publication by Qantas and JNTO.
• And as added value for JNTO beyond the scope of the brief, I created photo gallery stories from that trip to Japan for Vogue.com.au.
日本の文化を理解するコピーライターが必要ですか？
私は日本に5年間住んでいて、定期的に戻ります。株式会社セガ「SEGA」の東京本部でゲームの取扱説明書の翻訳者として働いていました。そして、旅行雑誌の仕事やガイドブック「Rough Guide to Japan」と「Rough Guide to Tokyo」の研究で日本を周りました。
旅行記者と観光コンテンツプロデューサーとして、日本の旅行業界と外人の客の考え方と両方よく分かります。
英語を話すゲストと効果的にコミュニケーションをとる必要がある場合は、私にご連絡ください。
どうぞよろしくお願いいたします。