Sydney tourists take “Giga” selfies for Chinese New Year

Sydney travellers are celebrating Chinese New Year with a twist this year, thanks to Tourism Australia’s Giga Selfie promotion which started yesterday.

“We reckon we’ve come up with a great way for our Chinese visitors to share a wonderful experience of enjoying this very special occasion here in Australia,” said Tourism Australia Managing Director, John O’Sullivan.

“Chinese New Year is the most important celebration in the Chinese calendar. It’s a huge holiday.”

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The Lunar Year themed experience involves tourists getting snapped with a Sydney Harbour backdrop. After the photo is taken, participants are emailed a link to a 10 second selfie video which later zooms out to reveal the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

While the campaign is primarily aimed at Chinese visitors, everyone is welcome to have a turn too and share on social media using the hashtag #GigaSelfie. So far tourists have flooded Instagram and Twitter with their clips to celebrate the festival which commenced in Australia today.

“We’re all about helping people make their experiences more enjoyable through photography, so developing the Giga Selfie technology for Tourism Australia was exciting,” said Canon Australia’s Director of Consumer Imaging, Jason McLean.

Australia just topped the record of one million annual visitors, which according to Tourism Australia is set to become a $13 billion annual contributor to the economy by 2020.

The Giga Selfie initiative will run over the course of the Chinese New Year Festival until February 14 at Dawes Point, Sydney Harbour.

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