October 21 2026, 10:43 am | BY Ricki Green | No Comments
BYRDLI and I LOVE NY are backing existing BYRDLI platform member Matt Lambley to experience the scale, beauty and depth of New York State, building a new collection of bookable travel products for his Travel Club from the places he genuinely discovers along the way.
There is the New York everyone knows. And then there is the New York that begins when the skyline disappears.
This October, BYRDLI and I LOVE NY / New York State Division of Tourism are backing Australian photographer, filmmaker and existing BYRDLI platform member Matt Lambley to go beyond the familiar and deep into a New York State many Australian travellers have never seen.
Through the Hudson Valley, Catskills, Adirondacks, Finger Lakes and beyond, Lambley will experience a State of extraordinary scale and contrast: mountain roads disappearing into fall colour, lakes that seem to go forever, vineyards and historic towns, grand hotels and hidden stays, and food, architecture, wilderness and centuries of stories layered across regions that can feel worlds apart.
Unlike traditional destination activations, or the familiar influencer model built around promoting someone else’s pre-existing package or platform, Lambley’s journey will not disappear when the content does.
He already operates his own Travel Club through BYRDLI, where he builds and sells his own travel products directly to his community.
BYRDLI’s technology enables creators, independent travel advisors and enterprise brands to build their own hotels, itineraries, packages and travel experiences inside their dashboard using BYRDLI’s product-building tools. They are not affiliates linking audiences to somebody else’s product. They are owners of the experience they create.
Each product is built by the platform member, combining live travel inventory with their own imagery, first-hand insights, recommendations and point of view. Products can be dynamically bookable or supported by BYRDLI Concierge, giving travellers assistance before, during and after their trip.
So the places that genuinely stop Lambley (pictured below), the hotels he wants to return to, the roads worth taking and the experiences he believes his community should know about can become part of his own New York State collection, built from the journey he actually lived.
BYRDLI Co-Founder and CEO Vanessa Richards said New York State was the kind of destination the company’s Featured Travel Club model was created for: “New York State is one of those places where the more you understand it, the bigger it becomes.
“Everyone knows the skyline. What I love is what happens when that disappears behind you and the landscape just opens up. The Hudson Valley, the Catskills, the Adirondacks, the Finger Lakes, they have completely different rhythms, histories and identities, yet somehow it is all New York.
“We wanted Matt to experience it properly. Drive the roads. Find the hotels. Eat somewhere because someone local told him to. Stay longer somewhere because it surprised him. That is where the real story is.
“And the magic for us is that his community doesn’t have to simply watch it from the other side of a screen. Matt can take what he genuinely loved, build it into his own travel products and make that experience travelable.”
Lambley will travel through regional New York State starting this week.
A State that refuses to be one thing
New York City remains one of the great cities of the world. But the partnership begins with a different question: what happens if you keep going?
The answer changes constantly. The Hudson Valley brings river towns, estates, food, art and history. The Catskills move into mountains, forest and a different pace entirely. Further north, the Adirondacks open into vast wilderness, lakes and mountain country. The Finger Lakes shift again, into wine, water, food and landscapes shaped by some of the State’s most dramatic natural features.
And Lambley arrives as fall moves across them. The colours deepen, harvest begins, the air changes, and road trips become part of the experience rather than simply the way to get somewhere.
Yet fall is only one New York State. The wider story will also explore the destination through winter, spring and summer, revealing a State that can feel entirely new each time you return.
Says Ross Levi, Executive Director and Vice President, New York State Division of Tourism – I LOVE NY: “New York State rewards curiosity. The more you explore, the more distinct each of our 11 unique vacation regions becomes, in their landscapes, communities, history, food and culture. There is extraordinary variety here, from world famous cityscapes to charming small towns to sweeping outdoor spaces – and Matt’s journey gives Australian travellers an authentic taste of all that awaits them from someone who has taken a deep dive into exploring our amazing destination. We hope it inspires audiences not only to see more of New York State, but to return again and again in different seasons and continue finding everything there is to love.”
The travel comes first, distribution follows
For Richards, the activation reflects a much broader shift already underway across the creator economy: “There is suddenly an enormous conversation about creators owning their audiences, becoming retailers and building businesses beyond media. We proudly built for that years ago.
“BYRDLI was built around the belief that the person inspiring the travel should have the infrastructure to participate in what happens next.
“We didn’t build the theory and then go looking for a use case. We have spent years putting it into the real world, real platform members, real destinations, real travellers, real products and real transactions. This isn’t a future concept. It is operating infrastructure we have been proving globally for years.”
Qantas joins as airline partner and will also be exclusively featured as the carrier across Lambley’s New York Travel Club packages. For Lambley’s community, that means the journey does not start once he lands. The flight, the road, the stays and the destination can ultimately sit together as one travel experience.
Known for cinematic filmmaking, road trips, landscapes and beautifully observed travel, Lambley has built a community around the places that make people stop scrolling and want to know where they are. New York State gives him plenty to work with.
Says Lambley: “The deeper I got into planning this trip, the more I kept thinking, how did I not know this was New York?
“The scale is what surprised me most, the mountains, the lakes, the history, these incredible towns and hotels, and how different one region can feel from the next. That is what I’m most excited about, getting out there and finding my version of New York State.
“And because I already have my Travel Club, I get to bring the places I genuinely love home with me. They don’t just become something I posted once. They become somewhere my community can actually book and experience themselves.”
‘The New York You Haven’t Met Yet’ is ultimately about showing Australians that one of the world’s most famous destinations can still surprise them and giving that discovery somewhere to go.
Lambley won’t just come home with content. He’ll come home with a New York State travel collection his community can actually book and experience.
