Robert enjoys writing about social trends, music, the environment and politics. After working his way through a string of bizarre but never boring newspapers Robert graduated to working as a online journalist at news.com.au.
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.
Image: State Treasury's estimate of the value of Oprah's visit to the NSW economy
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.
While there is certainly a case to be made for the impact on tourism of a record high Australian dollar, can we really say this high-risk gamble would have paid off otherwise? What does this whole embarrassing affair say about how we present ourselves to the world as a nation?
Last year the then Premier of NSW, US-born Kristina Keneally, said all overseas visitors want is koalas and kangaroos when they come to Australia and we should get over our delusions of cultural grandeur and keep selling ourselves as giant Down Under theme park.
This is the same Premier who let Oprah place a giant “O” on the bridge. Aside from what this says about Winfrey’s ego, what does it say about the rest of us?
It’s a perfect example of how those tasked with promoting Australia as a tourist destination think. Somewhere in their fawning rush to agree to any demand Winfrey’s flying circus made; road closures, secrecy agreements and millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money, they forgot something. It’s a television talk show. An American one at that.
Take the FIFA World Cup Bid and that last minute video of bogans, beaches, Ian Thorpe (on Bondi of course) babes and a kangaroo.
The only campaign I can think of that was even less representative of what Australia is really like and who actually lives here was the disastrous ‘Where the bloody hell are you?’ campaign. At least Lara Bingle got something out of it.
The spoof version was more accurate than the original.
Thanks to a cringeworthy obsession with a dated formula we can trace back to the time of Paul Hogan’s Crocodile Dundee and Olivia Newton-John’s Koala Blue stores, the worlds’ perception of Australia as anything more than a cultural wasteland with abundant natural beauty remains unchanged from a bad 80s hangover. Kristina Keneally’s view certainly hasn’t changed and she’s been living here since the early nineties.
It sometimes seems to me that there is something in the national psyche that says we are not really that good at anything other than sport, drinking and speaking with a clanging accent.
The most recent offering from the Federal Government-funded Tourism Australia appears to have barely moved on from previous efforts. The didgeridoo backing track might be gone but I don’t know anyone that says “Au-stray-li-yah”.
Once again there’s a massive over reliance on natural scenery. We get it, its stunning, but what else? The cultural elements like the opera singer seem tokenistic as does the Aboriginal boy and the Asian family. It all ends in a hideously jingoistic a cappella shout on the steps of - you guessed it - the Opera House, with Harbour Bridge backdrop of course.
It’s cute, but with “weird” animals, beaches, beaches, beaches, the outback and the occasional city centre. Probably should have had some opals in there as well for good measure. That’s some seriously classy stuff for a $150 million price tag.
It’s as though the people responsible have not even tried. It just seems all too easy to dine out on the same tired and embarrassing formula time after time.
I can almost see a boardroom of marketing geniuses when a light bulb appears above someone’s head and then like some idiot savant they start talking about warm weather, coral reefs, Ayers Rock and of course - the final brick walling us in to this national identity tomb - a koala.
Wow! That’s the kind of visionary branding you pay millions for.
So what’s to be done? Yes, sell our strengths such as natural beauty, but maybe tell the world things they don’t know rather than trading on a dated brand. For example the Australian ski fields. Get past the desert island thing for a change. Maybe start promoting Tasmania while we are at it. What about our massive wine industry? Think of the Barossa Valley or Margaret River.
Let’s sell the experiences you might have staying in one of our cities. Melbourne’s laneways, Sydney’s nightlife, or even the smaller centres like Perth or Adelaide, each with a vibrant local identity. Then there’s our rich multicultural heritage that should be the envy of the world, rather than being known for race riots and skin-toned political slogans like “stop the boats”.
If we actually tried we might get people doing a bit more than day trips to the Sydney Opera House before racing off to Ayers Rock or Cairns.
Australians realise there’s a lot more to our country that’s worth knowing about. It’s about time we told the rest of the world.
Do you agree? How would you promote Australia to international travellers? And do you think Oprah's show was the right way to do it?
Comments