Sydney is sharing the tourism light with regional New South Wales after State Premier Barry O’Farrell unveiled the ‘biggest ever’ integrated campaign to drive tourism into areas outside the main city.

Unveiled this morning at Westfield Bondi Junction and described as “the first of its type and scale”, the Make Some Our Time campaign aims to inspire Sydney-siders to take a short break in regional areas across NSW.

Running for four weeks until 12 August this year, the campaign will utilise augmented reality technology to enable Westfield shoppers to ‘interact’ with NSW native wildlife and inspire them to visit the real thing.

Accompanied by a promotion with up to $1 million in regional accommodation vouchers up for grabs, Mr O’Farrell said the campaign will push more Aussies to “take advantage” of the state’s “diverse regional areas”, beaches and winter wonderland in the Snowy Mountains. 

“Time-poor Sydneysiders are the biggest takers of short breaks – this innovative promotion will help them take advantage of the millions of destinations NSW has for the perfect break,” Minister for Tourism and Major Event George Souris said.  

“We all know we are meant to recharge our batteries every now and again, and we always remember how good we felt when we did.  This campaign makes it easy for people to do this.”

The promotion running over the same four-weeks of the campaign, will see Destination NSW give away $1 million in accommodation vouchers in eight Westfield centres in NSW.

Shoppers who spend $30 in any participating retailer in-centre, they will receive a scratch card that could see them win $200 off any regional accommodation booking over $400.