It takes a brave destination to tell Australians how to have fun. After all, we invented it. Yet Visit California, never short of sunshine or self-confidence, has launched a six-part “Mini Webinar Series” urging travel agents to “Play Your Way” in the Golden State.
And play they will, though perhaps not quite in the way the tourism marketers imagine. The clever twist is that California isn’t selling itself to travellers this time; it’s wooing the people who sell travel for a living.
Hosted through the Destination Webinars platform, the six bite-sized episodes (each running a merciful 12–15 minutes) are designed for agents who barely have time to boil the kettle between bookings. The idea: learn, laugh, maybe win a prize, and somewhere between the coffee and the next client call—be reminded that California still has more to offer than Disneyland and dreams of Malibu.
Webinar with benefits
Agents who watch all six instalments before 30 November go into the draw for a rather enviable “California Playground” getaway. The prize: a US$1,000 flight credit (Visit California), two nights at Huntington Beach courtesy of Visit Huntington Beach – Surf City USA, two nights in Yosemite Madera County, complete with wine-tasting and touring, and tickets to Universal Studios Hollywood. Add six AU$100 gift cards for good measure, and you have a program that almost sells itself.
There’s even an incentive-within-the-incentive: Certified California STAR Agents score double entries in the grand draw. Someone in Sacramento clearly understands how to turn professional learning into professional longing.
A busy agent’s dream
The beauty of the series is its brevity. Gone are the marathon Zoom sessions with dodgy audio and PowerPoint purgatory. Instead, each episode is a tidy burst of sunshine, sand, and scenery—short enough to fit between appointments but long enough to spark wanderlust.
“Agents are busier than ever,” says Eva Huezo, Tourism Development Manager for Visit California. “We wanted something flexible, engaging and rewarding.” It’s a pitch that lands squarely in the post-pandemic sweet spot: training that doesn’t feel like homework.
Huezo joined Charlie Trevena on the California Unlocked podcast—another smart move—to discuss how the state’s diversity and sense of play continue to charm Australians. She notes that California remains “a destination that’s as accessible as it is adventurous.” In Needham terms, that’s the code for you to surf in the morning, ski in the afternoon, and still find a decent glass of pinot by sunset.
Listen to the episode here: California Unlocked.
The art of selling sunshine
Selling California isn’t hard. Selling it again to clients who think they’ve already “done” it is. That’s where this series earns its keep. Each webinar nudges agents to rediscover the lesser-known corners of the state: the desert trails, the mountain towns, the coastal roads that Hollywood somehow forgot to film.
By equipping agents with fresher stories and updated itineraries, Visit California hopes to replace the predictable with the personal. It’s less about “book your client a San Francisco city break” and more about “let me show you how they can play their way.”
And let’s be honest, after the last few years of cancellations, credits, and chaos, travel agents could do with a little play themselves.
Timing is everything
Launching the program in November was no accident. It’s that sweet spot between the winter blues and the Christmas rush, a window when agents plot next year’s campaigns and clients daydream about escape routes.
California knows its audience. To Australian and Kiwi travellers, the state remains a familiar friend with endless reincarnations: wine, wilderness, waves, warm weather and broad smiles. The new slogan, The Ultimate Playground, doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel; it merely polishes it with optimism.
Learning made likeable
In an age where even attention spans have short attention spans, Visit California’s micro-learning strategy feels refreshingly grounded. It’s tourism training for the TikTok era, with better scenery and fewer dance routines.
And this one has legs, unlike many campaigns that fire off a press release and vanish. Each episode lives in the Destination Webinars library, ready to be revisited when agents need a refresher or when a client says, “I’ve been to LA; what’s next?”
That’s when the agent, now freshly briefed, can reel off suggestions from Yosemite to Madera County with the confidence of someone who’s just returned themselves.
The bigger picture
Beneath the glitz and giveaways lies something more strategic. Like every major destination, California understands that its recovery depends on trade. Airlines may bring visitors, but agents bring intent.
By arming front-line sellers with stories, not statistics, Visit California is quietly investing in narrative capital. The webinars may be short, but their reach could be extended, shaping not just bookings but perceptions.
Final thoughts
That’s what this series gets right: it reconnects the people who sell travel with the reasons we travel in the first place. To explore, to indulge, to play our way.
For agents, that’s both a promise and an invitation. For the rest of us, it’s a timely reminder that sunshine and smarts can still make a pretty good team.
By James Smith – (c) 2025
Read Time: 4 minutes
About the Writer
Jason Smith has the kind of story you can’t fake, built on long flights, new cities, and that unmistakable hum of hotel life that gets under your skin and never quite leaves. Half American, half Asian, he grew up surrounded by the steady rhythm of the tourism trade in the U.S., where his family helped others see the world long before he did.
Eager to carve out his own path, Jason packed his bags for Bangkok and the Asian Institute of Hospitality & Management, where he majored in Hotel Management and found a career and a calling. From there came years on the road, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, each stop adding another thread to his craft.
He made his mark in Thailand, eventually becoming Director of Sales for one of the country’s leading hotel chains. Then came COVID-19: borders closed, flights grounded, and a new chapter began.
Back home in America, Jason turned his knack for connection into words, joining Global Travel Media to tell the stories behind the check-ins written with the same warmth and honesty that have always defined him.
