Travel Weekly is bringing the worlds of travel, film and marketing together ahead of Cairns Crocodiles 2026 with a film-themed cheese-and-wine networking event in Sydney next month.
The invitation-only Film & Screen get-together will take place on Thursday 12 March from 5pm-7pm at The Palangi Gallery in Surry Hills, offering travel brands, destinations and marketers a chance to explore how the booming “set-jetting” trend – travel inspired by film and television – is reshaping tourism demand. If you’d like to attend, please express your interest to nancyh@irresistiblemagazine.com and catherinedc@irresistiblemagazine.com.
From The Lord of the Rings in New Zealand to Emily in Paris in France, and from Elvis-era Hawaii to the recent surge driven by The White Lotus, screen content has repeatedly demonstrated its power to create emotional connection, cultural resonance and long-lasting visitor growth for destinations. The event will unpack how these dynamics work in practice, including behind-the-scenes insights such as where the third season of The White Lotus was originally planned to be filmed – and why the location ultimately changed.
The evening will also preview Cairns Crocodiles’ newly launched Film & Screen track for 2026, which will sit alongside the festival’s main program and the Travel Marketing track spearheaded by Travel Weekly. Organisers say the expansion signals growing opportunities for the travel sector not only in brand marketing, but through deeper collaboration with the screen industry – from positioning destinations as cinematic backdrops to embedding locations directly into storylines.
Attendees will hear how travel brands can place clients at the centre of emerging trends, market to Australian consumers in more innovative ways, and leverage tools such as location incentives, tax offsets and co-productions to attract productions. Discussion topics will include niche audience building, strengthening high-value consumer relationships and the tourism uplift experienced by lesser-known destinations featured on screen.
And, naturally, there will be cheese and wine.
The Sydney event comes as Travel Weekly also announces the launch of a dedicated Travel Marketing track at Cairns Crocodiles in 2026, marking a major expansion of the festival and cementing tourism’s place at one of Australia’s most influential marketing and creative gatherings.
Evolving from TravelDAZE – Australia’s long-running forum for senior travel industry leaders – the new Travel Marketing track will now sit within the official Cairns Crocodiles program rather than running alongside it, giving the sector a bigger and more prominent platform.
The Travel Marketing track will debut on Tuesday 12 May 2026, shining a spotlight on tourism, aviation, hospitality and destination marketing. Developed in partnership with Cairns Crocodiles, the move reflects Travel Weekly’s commitment to elevating the industry’s voice and connecting it more deeply with marketing, media and innovation.
Cairns Crocodiles 2026 will run from 12–14 May, with main-stage keynotes, the Building Brands track and the Rewilding Creativity stream delivered across all three days. The Travel Marketing Track will run alongside the main stage on Tuesday, followed by the Film & Screen stream on Wednesday, giving delegates four distinct content pillars to explore.
The Travel Marketing track is guided by an advisory board drawn from across tourism, technology and media, including Dean Long, CEO of the Australian Travel Industry Association; Lucio Ribeiro, chief AI and innovation officer at TBWA Australia; and Krystle Ramirez, country head of Philippine Airlines.
Travel Weekly editor-at-large Nancy Hromin said the evolution of TravelDAZE into a formal Cairns Crocodiles stream was driven directly by industry demand.
“The industry has been clear – travel leaders want access to marketing intelligence and creative thinking, not just travel-specific discussion,” Hromin said. “This track gives our industry exposure to some of the sharpest marketing minds in the region, alongside the insights they need to grow and compete.”
Hromin added that the Travel Marketing Track is designed to complement existing conferences rather than replicate them.
“There are already excellent travel-only forums, such as ATIA’s Beyond Borders Travel Summit,” she said. “What this delivers is something different – world-class marketing speakers, horizon scanning and business intelligence, supported by Travel Weekly and our sister publication B&T.”
The launch comes as Australia’s tourism sector continues to expand, generating A$81.1 billion in GDP in the 2024–25 financial year – equivalent to 2.9 per cent of the national economy – according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Tourism Research Australia.
Cairns Crocodiles will conclude with the Cairns Masterclass presented by News Australia, followed by the Cairns Crocodiles Awards and Cairns Hatchlings, presented by Yahoo.
Tickets for the March Film & Screen networking event are limited. If you’d like to attend, please express your interest to nancyh@irresistiblemagazine.com and catherinedc@irresistiblemagazine.com.
You can by your tickets for the travel marketing track HERE.
