Tourism

If South Australia had just arrived in the world, red and wrinkled and mewling, what would we call it?

Something to reflect our pride – FreeSettlerVille, perhaps? Or our aspirations – New Melbourne might suit. Or something that highlights the diverse range of South Australian attributes, from bogan frenzies to Old Adelaide Family pretensions – Taylyah Ashton-Smith, maybe?

Back in 1999 advertising ‘guru’ John Singleton declared the name South Australia “boring” and suggested ‘Bradman’ instead. It may be that having six or seven wives gives one a rather low threshold for boredom – although his enthusiasm for cricket shows he is not entirely averse to the concept.

Continue reading "South Australia. It’s the middle bottom bit." »

Camped on Kangaroo Island once. Great place. Swam naked on a pristine beach and ate the best damn King George Whiting ‘n’ chips you’ve ever had in your life.

Update: last night on the ABC’s Media Watch it was revealed that celebrities were paid $750 to Tweet positively about KI. This article was posted hours before that, purely by coincidence, and we weren’t paid a cent. So there.

Saw rare glossy black cockatoos, koalas, seals, you name it. The seals are hilarious. They waddle up the dunes on the island’s wild southern shore, then roll back down like kids on a grassy slope. Good times.

For me, KI was a wild, sand-between-your-toes, hardly-spend-a-cent kind of holiday. That’s why I was initially bewildered by the artsy ads aimed at an upmarket audience, which are currently in their final week of an eight week eastern states TV run. Well, turns out SA Tourism know exactly what they’re doing.

Continue reading "This might be the best tourism ad ever made" »

Give The Star some credit. It does at least live up to its name, even if it has to fork out megabucks to get the stars to appear.

When Star City opened in 1995, it reportedly paid Diana Ross a cool million to perform at the opening. That was a fun night. The free concert was dangerously crowded, and you had to queue for three hours to play blackjack tables with a minimum bet limit of $25.

When Star City rebranded as The Star last year, it again reportedly paid big bucks for the likes of Russell Crowe, Jen Hawkins and other big names to show up. Us star struck Sydneysiders were presumably meant to think that the casino was a fabulously exciting place to blow our money, not a depressing RSLy place to blow our money.

Continue reading "Nothing good ever happened at a Sydney casino" »

While the rest of the world is throwing off the shackles of authoritarian regimes and taking the first steps towards democracy, one country is slipping further into military rule.

Fiji is not on the other side of the world, it’s in Australia’s neighbourhood. Many of us have visited as tourists and it’s a place where our Government has real influence.

Behind the smiles of the tourist industry it’s a place where citizens have few human rights, where the media are oppressed and where trade unions are targeted. Its economy is stagnating and Fijians are leaving in droves.

Continue reading "A gorgeous tropical paradise ruined by a cruel regime" »

What’s Australia like? A sizeable question, but a young Argentine student who has returned home to Buenos Aires after a year in Australia has given his report: he was so lulled into contentment that he felt he had to leave.

Carlos Miceli, 24, had planned to study in Australia for three years but pulled up stumps two years early. He expresses deep affection for the people and place but found a country with too many rules and too little to engage the socially or intellectually curious.

His views, recently posted on his website, will cause some people to say: “Then don’t come back.” That would prove his point.

Continue reading "Don’t cry for me Australia. Truth is, I’m glad I left you" »

Anyone who thinks size doesn’t matter obviously hasn’t spent time with the Big Prawn in the northern New South Wales town of Ballina.

Designed in the late ‘80s by a sculptor whose research involved the time-honoured artistic technique of dissecting a tiger prawn in a café, this symphony in fibreglass and cement is one of Australia’s biggest Big Things.

At six by nine metres, it’s longer than Rockhampton’s Big Dugong, heavier than Mount Vernon’s Big Chook, and just a little bit weirder than Sarina’s Big Cane Toad.

Continue reading "The crusty crustacean creating a big stink" »

Life can be very cruel sometimes, particularly when it comes to middle class white people and their admirable struggle to find somewhere exotic and worldly where they can just relax while enjoying some budget cocktails and the occasional Unique Cultural Experience™. Poor Carolyn Webb learned that the hard way this week when The Age published her thoughtful, well considered and entirely well researched travel piece on Bali, a place she’s never wanted to go to.

You know how it is. You work tirelessly all year round, saving enough pennies so you can board a budget airline to one of the cheap, tropical paradises dotted around Australia in the hope that you can just let it all hang out, catch some rays and for one brief moment forget how hard it is back home with a stable economy propping up your solid income.

Of course, you don’t want to go to one of those shitholes like Bali or Thailand, because you know from fourth hand anecdotal experience that other people have been there and hated it, plus got bum sick in the first three days because the natives didn’t bother posting signs reminding them not to drink the tap water. Rude.

Continue reading "Bali is Paradise Lost for middle-class white people" »

As Australian Parliamentarians consider their voting positions on poker machine mandatory pre-commitment technologies, the impact on gambling on society, and a sensible and evidence based approach to fix the downsides to gambling, it’s important to consider what regulating this leisure activity will mean to inbound tourism over the next decade and beyond.

To maintain international competitiveness, many Australian casinos have been actively investing in new tourism infrastructure and upgrading existing properties. The total capital expenditure program across Australian casinos exceeds AU$4.4 billion with impressive upgrades to Crown Melbourne and Burswood in Perth, The Star in Sydney, and SKYCITY in Darwin amongst others.

Over the same time, there has been increasing competition from Asia, most notably in the emergence of ‘integrated resorts’ that offer unprecedented opportunities to grow international tourism.  Singapore has overseen the construction of two integrated casino resorts at a combined cost of around AU$12 billion. 

Continue reading "Kill the pokies and risk killing tourism too" »

To put it bluntly, which job would you pick for your child: Ripping precious minerals from the soil for sale to Chinese billionaires, or mixing daiquiris for sale to Chinese billionaires?

It’s not an easy choice for a parent to make, and it has been just as hard for the Government.

Just 18 months ago the general idea was that the best labour management strategy was make sure all hands were on the mining boom pump.

Continue reading "Mixing daiquiris and mining a top cocktail for economy" »

You are heading for a rendezvous with an old school friend - a celebration in the destination of her choosing. You know the name of the city you’re landing in, but it’s not until the cabin crew are told to prepare for landing that you realise you do not actually know the name of the nation you are descending into.

You recall that there was a time when you would carefully select, and then devour, real paper guidebooks for months prior to an international departure.  What happened?

Then you realise that there is no relevant comparison.  The person that read the guidebooks was a tourist - seeking immersion in something new.  The person who will need to Google the name of the nation we are landing in is an escapee – seeking extraction from something known.

Continue reading "Modern McTravel an exercise in escapism" »

First came the holidaymakers. Then came the high-rises. Then came the property spivs and assorted shonks. Then came the meter maids and the blue-rinsers from down south.

Then came more holiday makers. Then came schoolies. Then came the theme parks, more families and more blue-rinsers.

Then came the football stars. Then came nightclubs that were bigger and louder than the original Cavill Avenue lot, and then, inevitably, came the drug lords and violence.

Continue reading "The Gold Coast is in danger of losing its lustre" »

So US tourist numbers are down since Oprah’s “Down Under” fire sale of our national dignity and the much-wished-for Oprah cash has failed to materialise.

The idea of letting a foreign talk show host turn our country into giant television studios smelt dodgy from the start, but after yesterday’s revelations, it stinks.

The news yesterday that US visitor numbers have dropped by 0.8 per cent in the last year just leaves you wondering how this ever got so out of hand.

Continue reading "Why the bloody hell was Oprah here anyway?" »

We South Australians have some harebrained ideas sometimes. This week, Adelaide City Council decided to push ahead with multi-million dollar plans to revitalise the dreary and deserted Victoria Square into a major CBD hub.

That’s despite the fact that the State Government is already pushing ahead with its own multi-BILLION dollar plans to revitalise the nearby Riverbank precinct as the new city’s heart and soul.

After lengthy debate on Tuesday night, Adelaide City Council voted to invest $11.5 million on Victoria Square – despite the fact that there’s no commitment from the state or federal government to cough up the $100 million needed to complete the project.

Continue reading "How many revamped precincts does one city need?" »

When it’s this cold many of us think of escaping to a warm island paradise, but when it comes to Fiji the postcard images of warm water lapping pristine beaches mask an uglier picture.

Many travellers have been able to ignore the fact that Fiji is under a military dictatorship, but when the government is using their absolute power to stifle free speech and attack the rights of the workers who are serving you, it’s time to ask some serious questions.

The problem is what do we do?  Making calls on how we treat developing nations, especially our neighbours, is always tough. Tourism keeps the Fiji economy afloat and is vital to the living standards of all its people. Fiji is far from being North Korea with palm trees – there is still some civil society and freedom left.

Continue reading "Fiji: Franksta’s paradise hides a dark side" »

On 10 May, that little sliver of land, Israel, about one third the size of Tasmania but burdened with decades of unremitting attacks on its very legitimacy and existence, celebrates her 63rd year of independence. There are good reasons why many Australians should celebrate that.

We could talk about the historical bond between our two nations dating back to the ANZACS. A bond that is underpinned by our shared commitment to freedom and democracy, and respect for women’s rights, gays, minorities and the rule of law. We could celebrate that we are both thriving multicultural states that have successfully absorbed and integrated millions of refugees and immigrants from around the world.

And it wouldn’t hurt to reflect on the irony that Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy more rights, freedoms and liberties than do their neighbours in any number of Middle East nations - where they are currently dying while fighting for these very same rights and privileges.

Continue reading "Israel: Celebrating 63 years of independence" »

This week, we have seen two incredible women on television who have both made us feel proud to be Australian.

One is Anna Bligh, with her outpouring of emotion, reminding Queenslanders and the rest of the nation that people from the sunshine state are “the people they breed tough, north of the border.”  The other is Oprah.Yes, Oprah.

In Sydney, we are struggling to harness a sense of pride.

Continue reading "How Oprah could salvage Sydney’s pride" »

Very few people will admit to having a crap time on holidays.

Maybe it’s all the time and effort that goes into making one happen or the excruciating holiday countdowns you have with friends and colleagues before you leave or perhaps it’s the soul-destroying realisation that if “getting away from it all” doesn’t make you happy than nothing will.

Whatever the reason, no matter what happens on holidays, we’ll always say what a great time we had. And usually this is just a big fat lie.

Continue reading "The five worst things about going on holidays" »

Dearest Oprah, can we start by saying: ohmygod ohmygod ohmyGOD.

We can’t thank you enough for getting us out of the little marketing pickle we have found ourselves in ever since the Lara Bingle Where-the-Bloody-Hell-Are-You business (yes, what were we thinking?). For your enjoyment we have enclosed some photos from inside our marketing department from the moment we heard the news that you have decided to shoot your first ever overseas show in Sydney. As you can see, there was quite the excitement.

A few more pictures follow. We will of course have a full itinerary ready by the time you arrive but now that we’re locked in there are a few preliminary things you might want to think about that we’ve listed below.

Continue reading "A thank-you note to Oprah from Tourism Australia" »

Everyone’s got pet hates.  Mine include sniffing milk to “see” if it’s still ok to drink, spitting in public streets, couples who refer to themselves in the third person and people that persist in holiday countdowns on their Facebook updates.

But just because this is my list, that doesn’t mean that all Australian people want to throw up when they watch someone’s nose nestle into the lid of a communal carton of milk or clears their throat and deposits the contents onto the street.

Continue reading "Olympics 101: How to be nice to foreign people" »

Could Australian air travel be affected by a similar event to the volcanic eruption in Iceland which shut Europe’s skies? The short answer is yes.

While it’s unlikely domestic flights could be severely affected, beneath the aviation corridors linking Australia to Asia and Europe lies Indonesia, which has more active volcanoes than any other country. A cataclysmic eruption there would cause major disruption to international air traffic, and tourism and some trade as a result.

Darwin is home to one of nine global ash monitoring centres which track volcano activity and advise airlines on current risks around the world. The Bureau of Meteorology specialist who runs it, Dr Andrew Tupper, says it is “virtually impossible to fly in and out of Australia without going over volcanic activity”.

Continue reading "The volcanic ash threat to Australian flights" »

US President Barack Obama will visit Australia in March.

The White House has just confirmed a rumour that has been circulating in Queensland since last November.

President Obama’ visit will commemorate the 70th anniversary of formal diplomatic relations between the US and Australia and there is mounting evidence that the visit will feature Queensland prominently being the home state of Prime Minister Rudd. 

Continue reading "Queensland to get large share of Obama sunshine" »

“Shine like a big, big star!” This quote may sound like an odd introduction to an article about Australia’s bid for the FIFA World Cup in 2018 or 2022, but it is also the basis for one of the inspirational highlights of the bid team’s work in Cape Town two weeks ago.

All bidding nations were invited to Cape Town by FIFA to participate in a media expo to present our claims.  The media expo was the first of only three formal presentations for bidders to the FIFA Executive, the international football community and international football media.  While it was the ‘set piece’ event for bidding nations during the week, Football Federation Australia (FFA) also planned other activities to ensure we were noticed in a very busy period for world football.

The inspiration came from a visit to a township school outside Cape Town by Federal Minister for Sport Kate Ellis, FFA Chairman Frank Lowy, CEO Ben Buckley, Head Coach Pim Verbeek, and the eight Aussie kids who had won a competition to be Bid emissaries for the week.

Continue reading "World Cup bid: Shine like a big, big star" »

In Adelaide we worry a lot. A mall, trams, grandstands, hospitals even roundabouts cause hours of debate. However, nothing winds us up more than someone criticising our city. We’re so defensive.

Sometimes I think we get so outraged because secretly we worry that Adelaide may actually be a backwater.

Often the “solution” that is put forward is to build an iconic building such as a tower or a fantastic or unusual museum. These are all great ideas – we should build more unusual and more controversial buildings. Interesting buildings give a city character. I like buildings that have gardens down the side and on the roof. It would be great to see some of them.

Continue reading "Is Adelaide the most insecure city in Australia?" »