Brand USA marked the launch of its 2026 Ambassador Program in spectacular style last night, packing out Universal Sydney Super Club for “America the Beckoning” – a trade celebration bringing together all 30 newly named ANZ Ambassadors.
The room was buzzing from the moment doors opened at 6pm, with the 6-9pm event drawing a full house of agents under a disco ball and red velvet curtains. An Auslan interpreter signed throughout proceedings on stage, a welcome and well-received touch that set the tone for the evening’s central theme: inclusion.
A panel of destination and trade representatives took the stage for a lively Q&A, including Julie Jones, Editor of Travel Without Limits, Louise Terry, President of Gay and Lesbian Tourism Australia (GALTA), and Alex Brennan, Head of Commercial at Sports Where I Am, alongside representatives from Colorado, Hawai’i Tourism Oceania, Travel Texas, Brand USA and Qantas – which signed on this year as the program’s exclusive airline partner for Australia and New Zealand.
But if there was one thread that ran through the entire discussion, it was inclusivity. Whilst acknowledging the current climate and what is shown on the news, panellists kept coming back to how welcoming the USA is, how far the destination has come in embracing every kind of traveller, and how that spirit of welcome is exactly what agents should be selling. It was easily the biggest talking point of the night.
The event follows Brand USA’s reveal last month of the 30 Australian and New Zealand advisors joining the 2026 cohort – 22 from Australia, eight from New Zealand – as part of a broader expansion of the Ambassador Program into a genuinely global initiative, with 250 ambassadors to be named worldwide across 2026 to mark America’s 250th anniversary (America250).
Qantas’s involvement builds on its growing US push: the airline currently runs up to 40 weekly services to the US, launches Sydney-Las Vegas in December 2026, and has Project Sunrise’s direct Sydney-New York and Sydney-London services slated for 2027.
