What's so good about Australia?
Jun 22nd 2011, 4:14 am
#16
Mostly Harmless
Joined: Jan 2010
Location: Semi-rural wonderworld, Brisbane
Posts: 15,109
Re: What's so good about Australia?
Sounds pretty sensible to me ... one day I will get in that campervan and head for the South Island ...
Last edited by DeadVim; Jun 22nd 2011 at 4:48 am.
Jun 22nd 2011, 4:21 am
#17
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Nov 2007
Location: Scotland
Posts: 3,337
Re: What's so good about Australia?
I am always amused when people talk about how pretty the outback is. I have been working in it for 3 years and it was great on the first day. By the end of a 14 day swing my thoughts were - Its flat and its red. The dullest place on the planet.
The reality is, that Australia doesnt have a lot to offer the average tourist that isnt beaten by other destinations.
The reality is, that Australia doesnt have a lot to offer the average tourist that isnt beaten by other destinations.
Jun 22nd 2011, 4:32 am
#18
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jul 2007
Location: Sydney
Posts: 4,404
Re: What's so good about Australia?
You could go to France and drink amazing coffee, get tanked on the best wine, enjoy the company of fantastic looking women, see some incredible art. But you'll have done that surrounded by far more arseholes than you'll find in Australia. Australia's got more of a unique history than most places in Europe anyway.
If I came here to see a Koala, then I'm currently on the dumbest Koala hunt of all time. Yet to see one. They don't drink in the same pubs as me.
If I came here to see a Koala, then I'm currently on the dumbest Koala hunt of all time. Yet to see one. They don't drink in the same pubs as me.
Jun 22nd 2011, 5:11 am
#21
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 15,526
Re: What's so good about Australia?
I've never lived in an area that has so many Bars Restaurants and Cafes.... So Although people may not care to travel to From Europe or New York to them. As far as I'm concerned it's the best Urban enviornement I've lived in. There again Sydney Rd Brunswick through to Coburg is the longest shopping strip in Aus... if not the Southern Hemisphere.
It would take some of the best Urban Environments in the world to beat what we've got around here.
So 1 vote for the Melbourne Urban Factor from me... Tourists maybe not but residents then probably yes.
.
It would take some of the best Urban Environments in the world to beat what we've got around here.
So 1 vote for the Melbourne Urban Factor from me... Tourists maybe not but residents then probably yes.
.
Jun 22nd 2011, 5:24 am
#22
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 691
Re: What's so good about Australia?
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
................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
Jun 22nd 2011, 5:25 am
#24
Proudly Deplorable
Joined: May 2003
Location: Alloha snack bar
Posts: 24,246
Jun 22nd 2011, 5:27 am
#26
Proudly Deplorable
Joined: May 2003
Location: Alloha snack bar
Posts: 24,246
Jun 22nd 2011, 5:29 am
#27
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 691
Re: What's so good about Australia?
I should add the cleanliness, the fact you can see stars in cities at night-time (well you can in Perth anyway)
Jun 22nd 2011, 5:30 am
#30
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 576
Re: What's so good about Australia?
