Visit BUNGEO (Bunbury Geographe Tourism Partnership)
Case Study
destination marketing
Across four months, the campaign generated 205 direct trip bookings, equating to an estimated 635 visitor nights and $138,430 in direct visitor spend. Between March and June 2025, the Bunbury Geographe region ran its first destination marketing push under the new “Quick Escapes” campaign. The campaign aimed to stimulate short-stay visitation from Perth into the Bunbury Geographe region, with a specific focus on measurable bookings and economic return.
Team
Madi Arnold
Sam Back
Michael Schroder
Donyale MacKrill
Highlights
112% ROI in 16-weeks
205 direct sales
38,000 landing page visitors
3.2-million impressions
campaign outcomes
In addition to strong conversion outcomes, the campaign delivered over 3.15 million paid impressions and 38,496 website visits, amplifying awareness of the region and driving consideration across priority market segments.
Audience insights, creative performance and platform efficiency were tracked monthly, with learnings applied in real time to improve performance and cost-efficiency.
The result is a campaign that has both immediate economic impact and long-term strategic value for the region’s LGAs and tourism operators.
Economic Impact
$138,539 direct visitor expenditure delivered.
The Quick Escapes campaign was designed to drive short-stay visitation from Perth
and convert high-intent audiences into real bookings. We are pleased to report that
this objective was achieved, with over 200 direct bookings made from the
campaign.
In just four months, this campaign directly injected $138.6k into the local visitor economy from attributable bookings alone. This figure does not account for:
- Additional untracked bookings due to platform limitations (e.g. BookEasy)
- Ancillary spend from additional travellers per booking (e.g. couples, families)
- Long-term value from remarketing and returning visitors
Performance Highlights
Over the course of the campaign, Google Ads proved to be the most efficient driver of bookings, particularly during the earlier months when campaign activity aligned with peak short-break travel periods.
The average click-through rate (CTR) across Google Ads was 7.86%, which is well above the tourism industry benchmark. For context, the typical CTR for Google Search Ads in the travel and tourism sector sits between 4–5% according to Wordstream and similar ad performance studies. This elevated performance indicates that the ads were not only well-targeted, but that the messaging and creative strongly aligned with what users were actively searching for, particularly in relation to accommodation and short stays.
The cost per conversion averaged $226, with Capel being the standout performer at just $33.96 per booking. This reinforces the importance of bottom-of-funnel intent targeting — the Capel campaign led with terms like “weekend getaways near Perth” and “Capel accommodation,” which captured users at the point of decision.
Across all Google activity, the strongest-performing ad groups were themed around:
- Accommodation
- Wine experiences
- Nature getaways
These themes reflect a consistent pattern across the campaign: audiences were most likely to act when content connected a specific destination with a tangible, bookable experience.
The shift away from BookEasy and towards a direct lead form was also a critical success factor. It reduced friction in the user journey and led to higher-quality leads and better attribution.
Most notably, the campaign’s Google Ads competed head-to-head with Booking.com and Airbnb — platforms that typically dominate paid search real estate in the travel sector.
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Below are case studies of work we’ve delivered in the real world, for real clients, from delivering 112% ROI on destination marketing for a tourism partnership of shires, to breaking records for the Australia’s South West’s “Winter Down South” campaign, generating 2,500 clicks-to-book and amassing a reach of over 9-million in 12 weeks.
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