Interesting piece from the ABC (The Australian one) today, about how Australian Actor Paul “Crocodile Dundee” Hogan believes that Australia needs to focus its tourism advertising on Australian people and the Australian lifestyle, and not more shots of beaches and hot women in bikinis.
I think he’s got a point- let’s face it, the beaches in Hawaii are just as good as (if not better than) the beaches on the Gold Coast, and there are hot women in bikinis all over the internet and in magazines.
The problem with Hogan’s approach, I think, is that the “throw another shrimp on the barbie” attitude doesn’t really exist in Australia anymore, certainly not in the cities foreign tourists are likely to be visiting. And before everyone says "But we still have barbeques in Australia, yes, we do, but the “Average” tourist isn’t going around to Baz and Shazza’s place on the weekend for drinks and barbie, are they?
I have to say, when I look at Australian tourism advertising, I see nothing that would compel me to jump on a plane and spend 14 hours there to get to Australia, but that’s just me.
Anyway, do you think Paul Hogan has a point? Does Australian Tourism need to be reinvented? Or is it a lost cause?
If Australian tourism is depending on large numbers of people taking 16+ hour flights from English-speaking countries, then, yes, that might not be the best approach.
Australia has a huge nearby available audience of potential tourists who very well could be attracted by the different culture.
I think what he’s saying is that Americans won’t fly for 14 hours to Australia to look at beaches and Bikini Babes, when they can go to Hawaii or Florida or Mexico or the Caribbean for less money and less flight time and get the same thing.
Instead, he’s saying we (Australia) need to say to Americans “Australians are friendly, laid back people and you will have a good time with us when you’re in our country, which is entirely unlike yours.”
Seriously, I think the biggest issue is that most yanks don’t have a clue what Australia is all about. I certainly didn’t before I moved here. Most of our “education” on Australia sadly came from Paul Hogan and those stupid movies.
I think the best way to approach tourism would be to show Americans what there is to see and do here that’s exciting. No, we don’t all live in the bush and go on walkabouts every week. There’s lots of beautiful cities and world class food, wine, sites, etc.
Hell, I still love it every time I cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge on a beautiful day.
I lived in Oz for ten years. I even took out naturalized citizenship, making me a dual citizen.
I agree with Hogan, up to a point. For me though, what sells Australia is its uniqueness. The land. The wildlife. An island paradise, even if the “island” is a continent. For Yanks, sell the uniqueness. At the same time, offer some familiar things to them. We already share a common language. We have similar interests with food and good drink. Americans think they know how to party; Aussies wrote the book.
Yes, but the language barriers mean many of them tend to come on package tour deals, basically seeing what the tour operators want them to see, which may or may not bear any resemblance to what Australia is actually like.
That’s a long flight. It’s about 12-14 hours to Los Angeles or San Francisco from Sydney or Brisbane. 22 hours will nearly get you to London from this part of the world.
The Tyranny of distance is an issue for Australia and always has been. And it’s still a problem once you’re here, because it’s so expensive to get around Australia (except between major cities). A return flight from Brisbane, QLD to Longreach, QLD (where the Qantas Museum and Stockman’s Hall of Fame is) is more expensive than a return flight to New Zealand.
Well, it must include a layover in Los Angeles; it’s still part of my travel time. I spend 3 hours flying to LA, then I get to sit around the airport for seven or nine hours before a 12 or 14 hour flight? Then I have to spend all my time in Australia flying around?
I’d suggest that Australian tourist traps learn to speak Chinese, et al.
Wow! I knew Paul was old and only a tourist attraction to people the age of my mother, but is this the first time someone who shills for the tourism trade has EVER spoken against teeny bikinis?
He has a point. There are “nice people” in many places but, in my experience, Australians are a cut above merely “nice.” It wasn’t just an isolated case; everyone we met from Melbourne, Sydney, Ayers Rock, Gold Coast to the Whitsunday Islands seemed genuinely friendly and helpful to ConcertoInF and I when we visited.
The most outstanding example I can offer occurred while we were on a walking tour with two other couples. We were passing through a rather gentrified neighborhood in Sydney. (I can’t recall the name of the area at the moment.) We stopped in front of one house to check our map and admire the flowers. The lady of the house came out and started to chat. Before we knew it, she had invited us into her gorgeous garden for tea and sandwiches. She phoned her husband at the office and asked him to come home and meet “the lovely Americans” she “found outside”. He arrived in about 15 minutes and joined the party. They gave us a tour of their home, and we had a wonderful afternoon discussing their neighborhood, Sydney, Australian history, politics, musicians and artists. I really felt like an insider when they unveiled a collection of rare prison bricks they had been collecting for years with the ultimate goal of building a small structure in the back garden. Wow! Who does all that with strangers?!
I’m extremely fair and always use a high SPF sunblock. Whenever we were near water local people approached to advise me that the sun there wasn’t what I was used to and offer zinc cream. One fellow handed me a still sealed tube and told me to keep it.
So, yes - gorgeous beaches you can find anywhere, but to be treated so warmly when your far from home is even better.
It’s easy to appeal to travelers. The real trick is to get to the masses suburban vacationers. The kind of people who book at chain hotels, thing wax museums are fun, ride around in enormous tour buses, and spend like crazy. Yeah, it’s a lame form of travel, but that is where the money is.
And for that, you need prestige. The teeming millions go on vacation so that they can brag about it at work and put it in the Christmas newsletter. That’s why Hawaii and Paris are such big winners- it’s name recognition.
I don’t know if you are going to build up that kind of cachet with “friendly people.”
I think the big issue is that those sort of people aren’t likely to endure a 12-22 hour plane flight to get to Australia in the first place, unless there’s something really unique and worthwhile to do when they get here.
You’re right, though, some sort of prestige name recognition would go a long way to changing that.
Promoting “people” and “lifestyle” is problematic in an age of mass immigration, as the populations of big cities come to resemble each other. The first experience of most tourists with Australia will be in Sydney–most of the international flights debark there, and it has the two most iconic sights in the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House.
But Sydney has a very Asian population, plus lots of Asian tourists and Asian restaurants. Anyone expecting a land of Paul Hogan-style characters tossing a shrimp on the barbie before the rugby match is likely to be disappointed.
Personally, I don’t have a clue how to promote tourism, because no two people want the same thing when they travel.
When I visited Australia, I found the people I met to be extremely unfriendly. I’m sure they’re perfectly pleasant within their own social circle, but why should they give a shit about another pommie tourist who’s only there for a few weeks, or is just passing through?
I had a great time with Aussies I knew and hung out with in Sydney (and even Canberra), but how many tourists are going to know people to hang out with?
I say stick to the “amazing shit to see and hot chicks on beaches” strategy, as beautifully exemplified by the Where the bloody hell are you? campaign.
I’ve sort of been going on the assumption, based on things I’ve read here and in other places, that everyone hates tourists from the U.S., and I’d do the world a favor and tour our national parks instead. That said, I would love to visit Australia, largely because I’ve heard the people are friendly and likely to be an all around good time. To that end, I think focusing on the people makes sense.
But I agree that the travel time is a significant obstacle. I tend to get a few weeks of vacation sprinkled throughout the year, but it would be near impossible for me to take as much as two weeks off at one time, which is about what I feel I would need to make the journey worthwhile. I suspect this is the case for many Americans.
I agree, that is why this 48 year old fat gimp applied for that 6 month tourism blog gig … on the grounds that I represent a fairly large monied demographic that wants to go interesting places on vacation. We are interested in other things, good places to eat, stuff that isnt physically hazardous or require risking ones skin [and bones]
I don’t look for half naked bodies playing in the surf, or rock climbing, or windsailing. I want great food, some interesting places to shop, comfortable places to hang out snacking and chatting with people, a beach that has cabana boys or girls bringing fruity drinks around so I can enjoy the sun and sand in peace. A fishing head boat cruise would be fun … there are more and more people with physical disabilities that are traveling, so we need to know about handicapped access, perhaps medical services. We have the money to go on vacation without loading 10 people to a room on spring break…
Australians like US tourists, but US Tourists don’t like Australia (from what I can tell) because of a perceived lack of amenities (no 24 hour shopping outside parts of Sydney and possibly Melbourne, no buying alcohol from supermarkets or 7-11s, complicated/expensive transport infrastructure). Also, the power supplies are different so I used to spend a lot of time at my old job explaining to American tourists that they can’t plug their Nintendo DS into the power sockets here because it will get zapped by the higher voltage.
Also, it’s expensive here. Stuff just costs a lot, especially by US standards. If I lived in the US, I’d probably never come to Australia unless I could get my work to pay for it, or I had friends/family to visit.
