As domestic travel booms as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, Australian Geographic has partnered with Tourism Australia to produce a special edition that showcases our regions, islands, wild encounters, walks, and road trips.
The result is a 148-page magazine called Australia’s Quiet Places. The collaboration highlights the hidden gems on our roads less travelled and aims to expand tourism into many places that will no doubt welcome a boost to local economies.
Mediaweek spoke to Australian Geographic editor-in-chief, Chrissie Goldrick, about how the special edition came to be.
Collaborating with Tourism Australia
After approaching Tourism Australia with the idea, Goldrick says that the two organisations were very quickly in agreement about what they wanted the magazine to look like.
“We haven’t really worked much with Tourism Australia in the past because their focus has always been inbound tourism, but obviously they’ve pivoted during this Covid period. They’ve been running this campaign to encourage Australians to holiday here – which they have to, they have no choice. But they’re trying to get people to think outside the square so you don’t have everybody crowding into the same few places, and instead going to places that may have been badly affected through drought or bushfire. That completely aligns with what Australian Geographic’s editorial focus always is, and always has been.
“When we went to Tourism Australia with the proposal that we do something together, we both were completely on the same page. They came to the party as it were, we collaborated and they sponsored us to publish a special edition of Australian Geographic.”
Choosing the Locations
When it came to choosing the locations to showcase, Goldrick says that they came from both Tourism Australia’s suggestions and places that people might not know about.
“Tourism Australia had some particular focuses that they wanted us to cover, and in Australian Geographic we don’t cover urban areas – we don’t cover cities, we don’t do the luxe kind of travel coverage that you might see in other magazines. We always go for a really immersive, natural experience.
“We were guided to a certain degree by Tourism Australia, and we were guided by stories that we’ve done before, places that we knew about that we’d done quite major work on in the past.
“We picked out the places that we thought people might not know so well and that they might be interested to find out about. “
The Map of Australia for Adventurers and Dreamers
Also included with the special is a fold out wall map of Australia. Goldrick says that the map is something Australian Geographic is particularly proud of.
“We have a real focus on cartography, map making. We’ve always had our own in-house map makers, in particular Will Pringle. He started with the magazine in 1987 and he is still our cartographer, and he does the most incredible original maps. An absolute unique selling point of Australian Geographic is his maps.
“In this edition of Australian Geographic, we’ve got a giveaway wall map of Australia, a big sheet map, and on that is another 75 places marked with little captions to go and seek out and see. We call it The Map of Australia for Adventurers and Dreamers, and we’ve given away a free wall map in this magazine as an extra inspiration.
“We’re really proud of it. We’re proud of the outcome, it looks really great, we think it’s really useful as well.”
Initial Response
While the magazine has only been on stands for a handful of days, Goldrick says early responses have been very positive.
“It’s been very well received. People really think it’s very beautiful, I think that’s the first impression. The cover seems to be causing a bit of a stir, and also the beautiful production values of it.
“The idea that we called this magazine Australia’s Quiet Places has really allowed people to focus in on what it is that we’re trying to cover. We’ve experienced what it’s like if a place is a bit loved to death, so we’re looking for inspiration and the idea of going somewhere quiet appeals to everyone.”
Future Specials
Looking ahead, Goldrick says that Australian Geographic certainly has enough content to go ahead with other specials in the future.
“We’ve done special editions before and collaborated with other regional tourism bodies like Tourism Tropical North Queensland. We do collaborate from time to time in order to help amplify a particular campaign, so I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t do one again. If this is successful for us on every level, we have so many stories that didn’t make it into this magazine I can’t even tell you! We went up a book size to produce the magazine, so we’ve got so many of these magazines that we could potentially do.”