Leading lifestyle publisher, Urban List, has today launched a new experiential platform — Heydays from Urban List — showcasing a curated selection of 50 daycays, staycays and vaycays from across Australia, each bookable with one click.
The Heydays launch comes on Black Friday — the timing designed to support local operators and encourage Australians to think twice about their spend this weekend, investing in memories alongside their discounted merch.
Urban List Head of Brand Experience, Sophia Wilcox, says the Heydays concept stemmed from research Urban List conducted in August in which one in three Australians said while they intend to do some travel domestically, they are doing so somewhat begrudgingly.*
“At the moment, the consumer journey has broken — it’s not starting with a dream, but a sense of duty to prop up an otherwise struggling economy. For so many in our audience, the sort of travel they once dreamt of is no longer on offer; the aspirational goalposts have shifted and there’s a lot of work to be done, and a lot of opportunity to be had, in working out how to shift attitudes so our destinations and tourism operators are sought-after; rather than a second resort,” Wilcox said.
“Everything about Heydays — from the name, to the immersive interface, to the experiences we’ve curated — has been designed to reignite that travel dream; to show an otherwise unseen side to our cities and our country, and prove that Australia’s culture is absolutely one worth investing in and experiencing.”
Urban List CEO, Susannah George, is optimistic about the outcomes the platform will deliver, seeing Heydays as a vehicle to transform the way future generations view domestic tourism.
“We all know that in order to support the 300,000 businesses that are beneficiaries of tourism, we need to encourage Australians to invest both time and money in seeing our country. The thing is, we can’t do that by framing it as their duty”, George said.
“Right now, travelling here is perceived as a compromise. We need to flip the switch and show them what the rest of the world sees — the stuff of dreams: fresh, exotic and untapped. We need to prove to Australians that our destinations aren’t just places, but transformative cultural experiences, and that’s exactly what Heydays is here to do.”
Heydays from Urban List experiences have been curated in partnership with a suite of travel operators, including Intrepid, Flight Centre, Booking.com, Expedia and Red Balloon.
The platform is currently offering visitors 15% off all Intrepid experiences and $50 off selected Flight Centre trips booked across the Black Friday weekend.
