NSW Chief Funster hangs up his hat

NSW Chief Funster hangs up his hat
By admin


The NSW winner of the Best Job in the World competition, Andrew Smith, has wrapped up his whirlwind tour of the state after six months of promoting Sydney and NSW.

As the NSW Chief Funster, Smith has been travelling around the state, discovering why it’s often called the ‘most fun’ place on earth, and sharing his experiences with the world via social media in order to target the international youth sector.

Destination NSW reported positive results for the campaign, with a 5% spike in youth visitors for the year ending March 2014 delivering just under a million young travellers –  the highest number of youth visitors since the current International Visitor Survey began in 2006.

There were more than 97,000 visits to the campaign website, and almost 240,000 likes, shares and comments on Smith's Facebook page.

Chief executive Sandra Chipchase said Smith’s time as Chief Funster proved a successful campaign that promoted youth travel in NSW.

“Ever energetic and entertaining, Andrew tackled the opportunity head on, not only reaching his goal of having 802,000 moments of fun in NSW, but exceeding it,” she said.

One of the key duties in the Chief Funster role was he Funster Experiment, a challenge that required Smith to uncover 802,000 moments of fun – one for each square kilometre of the state.

A real-time tally tracked his progress, with moments including 2105 steps of the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb, 1500 grapes crushed in the Hunter Valley, 60 seconds of freefall skydiving in Wollongong and meeting 18,000 Elvis impersonators at Parkes Elvis Festival.

“Calling Sydney and NSW home has been a dream come true,” Smith said. “I’ve had an incredible time and would encourage anyone with a passion for travel and sense of adventure to come here for work, study and play.”

The Chief Funster was the last of Tourism Australia’s six Best Jobs in the World winners to finish up his role, which was the most popular of all the states, clocking up 124,000 applications in total.

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Andrew Smith at Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo

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Andrew Smith with Let's Go Surfing company in Bondi Beach

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