Grafton’s Jacaranda season is still a few months away but plans to attract tourists to the region to experience the floral spectacular are in full swing. Images of Grafton bathed in the purple glow of Jacaranda season will soon be seen by millions in Sydney’s CBD, in Sydney and Brisbane airports, and also on the Chinese social media platforms, Weibo and WeChat. Clarence Valley Council’s promotions and events officer, Alicia Savelloni, said Grafton’s Jacaranda season was one of three attractions in the Clarence Valley being promoted as major tourist destinations. Last weekend an advertisement showcasing romantic images of Grafton’s Jacaranda season premiered on a 10m x 10m television screen in Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall. With Vivid Sydney Festival and Sydney Film Festival bringing massive crowds into the city’s CBD this next week, close to five million people are expected to see the advertisement enticing tourists to “escape to somewhere magical (and purple)”. Statistics collected by My Clarence Valley revealed the average tourists who visited Grafton for the Jacaranda season were females travelling from Sydney, aged between 25-35 years. Many of those women were of Chinese Australian heritage. Ms Savelloni said the Pitt Street Mall campaign was directly targeting that specific demographic of tourist. Another avenue being used to entice tourists to Grafton for the purple season was a ‘convenience’ advertising campaign run in restrooms at airports in Sydney and Brisbane. The advertisements used Aussie humour to promote Jacaranda season, telling ‘blokes’ that buying flowers for their girlfriends was a good idea, but taking her to Grafton for Jacaranda season was ‘genius’. Ms Savelloni said the convenience advertising campaign was so successful last year in the domestic airports, that this year it was being expanded to the arrivals lounges at Sydney and Brisbane’s international airports. Grafton’s Jacaranda season was also being advertised on the Chinese social media platforms, WeChat that has over one billion active monthly users, and Weibo with 400 million active monthly users. The Jacaranda season website was also being translated into Chinese.