Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Tourism Australia

AUSTRALIA'S star is shining as its showcase on the Oprah show has finally been beamed into homes across America.

The first of four episodes of the show - filmed at the Sydney Opera House in December - was broadcast in the United States this morning with the first Australian broadcast to be shown on Wednesday night at 7.30pm (AEDT) on Channel Ten.

NSW tourism minister Jodi McKay can already see the dollar signs and has said that Oprah's trip down under is estimated to be worth in excess of $160 million globally.

Oprah spent most of her nine day trip to Australia in Sydney and NSW and Ms McKay said that the NSW tourism industry is expecting a huge boost in interest from the United States market.

The chat show queen and her audience members were treated to all the best that NSW had to offer including Hunter Valley and Blue Mountains tours, the Sydney Harbour bridgeclimb, a day of sailing on the harbour and a trip to Bondi beach.

The NSW government is hoping to take advantage of this publicity and will be rolling out a major tourism marketing program across the United States over the next few months to tap into the awareness created by the shows.

Special fares and packages will be offered to Sydney from the United States in a joint move between Tourism NSW and Qantas Airlines and Qantas Vacations.

Tourism NSW will also be working with Tourism Queensland, Qantas and Oprah Winfrey's production company Harpo to offer viewers a chance to win 10 trips for two people to have the Ultimate Australian Adventure, closely replicating the experiences of Oprah's audience.

A major campaign for Sydney is also being run by Tourism NSW including online promotions, advertising in the Wall Street Journal and on ten outdoor sites in Los Angeles.

The United States is the fourth largest international visitor market for NSW and is worth around $480 million a year to the state's economy.

"Oprah's four hour celebration of her visit to Sydney, NSW and Australia will also be broadcast to millions more viewers in 145 countries around the world over the coming months," Ms McKay said.

NSW is already the world's favourite Australian destination, attracting more than half of all overseas visitors to Australia.
Source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/oprah-showcases-australia-to-the-us/story-e6frf7jx-1225990744674

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