Buzzy--Bee

I found this article in the travel section of The Age quite thought provoking and also quite accurate -

................The trouble for Australians is that the things that make as unique are also the things that make us cringe. Cuddly koalas, bouncing kangaroos, clichéd shots of Uluru at sunset... C'mon, there's much more to us than that!

And that may be true, but no one cares. There's a great quote from the late Steve Irwin that summed this up: "People are not going to travel thousands of miles to just get a café latte in Australia," Irwin said, "they are going to come here to see our unique wildlife like our kangaroos, wombats, platypuses and our beaches and rainforests. This is the only place on earth they can see these things in their natural environment."

That's the truth. Unfortunately, everyone in Australia is so determined to be seen as sophisticated and all grown up on the world stage that we'd prefer to ignore this and spruik our cafes or our arts scene or our vineyards.

But that's not why people come to Australia.

Pretend you're English, and you're tossing up where to go for your next holiday.

If you're into cafes and great casual dining, you'll go to Italy, not Australia. If you're into art you'll go to Paris, not Sydney. If you're into cool laneway bars you'll go to Barcelona, not Melbourne. If you like wine you'll go to Bordeaux, not the Barossa. If you like beaches you'll go to Thailand, not Byron Bay.

So what have we got? For starters, we can pretty much forget about promoting any of our cities, except for Sydney.

Melbourne's a fantastic place, I love it, but its main appeal is that it's kinda like a European city. So as a European tourist, or even an American, that's not much of a drawcard. Wow, it's, um... kinda like home. Just not as good.

And you can't tell me any resident of Shanghai or Seoul or Tokyo is coming to Australia to experience life in a city.

Canberra is mildly interesting, but not worth a long-haul flight to visit, and the other capitals are fun for a day or two, but they're not destinations in their own right.

Sydney does have those old clichés though – the bridge, the Opera House, the Manly Ferry – which may seem a bit lame to us, but they're what people think about when they picture Australia. You can't get that anywhere else.

Australia's beaches alone won't cut it. There are beautiful beaches in Mexico, in Tahiti, in the Bahamas, in Israel. What they don't have, though, is 2600km of Barrier Reef hemming those beaches in. They don't have whale sharks regularly swimming through them.

No other country has Kakadu or the Kimberley or the Olgas. There's natural beauty all around the world, but ours is unique to this continent.

Australia is also a great country for a road trip – the distances might be huge, but if you really like getting in the car and getting away from it all, then size matters.

There are things we need to fix, of course, to attract tourists, like the high price of services and their relatively low quality. Plus our airports could do a better job of making visitors feel welcome – in Tahiti recently I was greeted at the airport by a bunch of huge guys playing ukuleles; in Sydney last time I was greeted by uniformed customs staff and sniffer dogs.

But when it comes to promoting what makes Australia worth visiting, what makes it unique, we have forget the cafes and the arts scenes and the city life, and go for the lame old clichés: koalas, kangaroos and Uluru. That's what makes us us.

Source: http://www.theage.com.au/travel/blog...621-1gd5h.html

koalakim

The thing I was most struck with Oz when I first came here was how BIG everything was, big sky, big countryside etc and coming from the UK it was quite awesome (as they like to say here!). I was also impressed with the laid back lifestyle and alfresco cafes which you didn't get in the UK at that time. It was so exciting seeing Roos and Koalas in the fur for the first time as well and the amazing surf on the beaches.

I'm not sure if we would have got around to coming here as tourists if we hadn't come over to visit friends. I did come with an open mind and then got brainwashed (Manly's fault) and ended up living here but no quite where we originally wanted to be.

I think what lets Oz down now is the price of hotels and I can see why tourists aren't coming with the poor exchange rate, it was almost $3 when we first came and we were blown away with how cheap everything was, for meals, how much you got on your plate and the quality...which I still think is better than the UK. I'd love to go back to Uluru but now that one hotel chain has taken over the whole resort the prices have rocketed whereas before you could do it quite cheap (we didn't back then, but that's not the point!).

My thing was to see the barrier reef, cuddle a koala, see Sydney and the outback as a tourist. I have to say I still get bowled over by Sydney harbour on a beautiful day and doing the ferry crossing from Manly, doesn't matter how many times I do it, it's still great.

I'd like to do a winter holiday to Nth QLD but looking at the prices it's just as cheap to go to Thailand, Fiji or Bali as there are much better deals for those places, so no wonder Aussies or anyone else isn't holidaying over here.

And for what it is worth the last time I trekked all the way to Lucky Bay (used in the advert) to see roos on the beach there weren't any! First time was great and got some wonderful pics but last time there were too many people around and they didn't appear!

deb68

The British country side takes some beating, but the views out into the outback are just as stunning especially just as dusk approaches, the coastal views are amazing.
And yes there's the varied and wonderful wildlife here, can't be beaten in our opinion.
So yeah take out the cafe culture that's a modern city dwellers dream thing, whats wrong with roos and fluffy bears that hardly ever move anyway?

koalakim

I have to agree with you Deb about the British countryside. I've just come back from the UK and the Sussex countryside on a sunny day was stunning. Unfortunately I just missed all the rape fields but the poppies were just coming out as we left and they were lovely. We actually went to Devils Dyke for the first time in years and have to say those views were pretty big and awesome!

Unfortunately the coastal views on the south coast aren't quite as good as where we are in Oz! Grey sea and pebbles aren't quite the same!

Fluid36

I like the British countryside and the Australian, both are awesome in their own right.

NZ is more amazing than both though, by a long way, so if tourists want countryside they will just go there.

paulry

Sorry, African wildlife knocks spots off it.

bcworld

It's true, there is AWESOME around every corner on the South Island!

paulry

Sooooo..... Australia is a bland old place

Deancm_MKII

After a couple of years, yep. Once you've seen a kangaroo and koala you've pretty much done it all.

the troubadour

But the British seaside has a charm of it's own.

the troubadour

In many ways yes. The distances required to reach diversity are great. But there are some great places like Far North Queensland and The Great Ocean Road to travel.

Not been yet but by all accounts The Kimberleys are as well.

deb68

Maybe, but never been to Africa so i can only base my thoughts on what we have experienced, but i will take your word for it

the troubadour

Considering the size of the country I have always considered the extent to Australian wild life a little limited.

paulry

That first wild kangaroo sighting was very special. But now they're just overgrown bunny rabbits

the troubadour

Indeed. RSA has the beaches to match what Australia has too offer and a more interesting road trips possible as well.