DAYLESFORD – lead a double life.
That is the message of a new advertising campaign promoting the region as Australia’s premier spa and wellbeing destination.

Featuring Hollywood-based Australian actress Isabel Lucas, the ad was screened for the first time last night at The Convent Gallery to an impressed audience.

More than $7 million was spent on the campaign, which is hoped will attract more interstate visitors to Victoria by highlighting the dualities in Daylesford _ decadence and purity, indulgence and rejuvenation and temptation and redemption.

Tourism and Major Events Minister Tim Holding said the Daylesford and Macedon Ranges region was the perfect vehicle to spearhead Victoria’s tourism campaign over the next three years.

“It really says this is the premier destination in Australia for spa and wellbeing experiences, great place to come for terrific food and wine and art and culture,” he said.

Just after 8pm on Sunday the ads will air on almost every station across Australia, meaning viewers nationwide will get a taste of Daylesford.

“We think this will have a huge impact,” Mr Holding said.

“It’s a broad-based campaign to sell Victoria’s tourism credentials and that creates jobs for a vitally important industry in Victoria right when our economy needs it.”

The Daylesford _ Lead a Double Life campaign is the next phase of Tourism Victoria’s award-winning jigsaw campaign, which has promoted the diversity of each part of Victoria.

It will include television, cinema, magazine, newspaper and online advertising.

“Victoria’s tourism industry is holding up well following the Black Saturday bushfires and the global financial crisis,” Mr Holding said.

“This multi-million-dollar advertising campaign will ensure Victoria is able to overcome these challenges while continuing to buck the downward international trend in tourism.”

Peppers Springs Retreat general manager Wayne Cross was thrilled with the campaign.

“This is a golden opportunity and it’s really important tourism operators get behind it,” he said.