Hi Melodie, I'm another Australian who winces at Steve Irwin's capers, was only a few kms from Australia Zoo the other day but just couldn't manage it. All those roadside "Crikey" huge billboards featuring a wide-eyed Steve were just too much.

But little Aussie kids love him and his family, my neighbours' kids were so upset when Steve copped all the flak for dangling his baby. And he does plough back a heap of money into the environment.

Dear All,
I like the idea of an expat forum, sounds fab. Whilst I do agree that I could do the whole "lets bash Steve Irwin" job for quite some time and after living in the States for a few years - trust me I had my fill of him, I agree, he does do a lot for the environment and Australia, but when you find yourself rooting for the crocodile, there is a problem.
Geordie, I disagree with your sentiments about people being patriotic here, sadly the only time I have ever witnessed true patriotism here was on the day you won the olympic bid. I was so thrilled for you all, only to have it ruined the following day by the bombs which was so terribly sad. As for the bashing the Royal family, my god you all do a fabulous job of that don't you think? I also think that it is not pure weather related conditions that make people buy abroad, its being fed up with any number of problems in this country from the NHS, to the government to immigration, the list is endless. Truly sad when you consider what a magnificent country it is with such possibilities.
Perhaps Neil has watched a particular Oprah show on this topic that he would like to share with the rest of the class? hmm?

jjah

I understand WHY your saying what you are regarding national pride etc, but if you asked people if they were proud to be English, Scottish, Welsh, it would be an incredibly high percentage.

I think you misunderstood my comments regarding the royal family, its ok for the British to say things against them and our other institutions, but its different when foreigners say them, I've seen this happen and the results were not pleasant!

When I mentioned the weather, I meant to add the quality of life that comes with it i.e less rushed, owning a swimming pool, sit out eating etc. I've lived overseas for the last 17 years and for a lot of people the arrival of Ryanair & Easyjet has made the prospect of living overseas but working in the UK a reality.

Sorry about hijacking the thread!

Neil,

My my my...the things you find out on this Forum...who knew you were a closet Oprah watcher until you "outed" yourself!

And I'm glad to hear I've won; just to let you know that you're right as well -- the number one objection, or as sales and marketing likes to call it "resistance" to visiting Australia is the distance, so the tourism board wants to create a strong desire to go.

Geordie: that's a great idea about different campaigns - maybe they need to hire you! I doubt that it would ever happen though.

Here's an example: Qantas is starting DIRECT service from San Francisco to Sydney on March 29th. This is a big deal for Qantas (and indirectly the Tourism Board) as United's had the direct route all to themselves ever since Qantas decided to base in LA.

I contacted my Sales Rep in LA in NOVEMBER to see what sort of promotions they would be having so I could get my advertising in order.

As they followed Air New Zealand into this market after their stunning success with their direct flight; and since Air NZ had a promo rate of $777 roundtrip to kick off the direct flight, you'd think Qantas might be doing something similar.

I've been calling or emailing each month since then, the response is always that they're waiting to hear from Sydney. Right. Just received word last week -- and the answer is: nothing / nada / zip / zilch. No ad campaign. Go figure!

Regards,

Melodie
Certified Aussie Specialist

Now Melodie you have gone and done it - telling Neil that he is right! Just at the one time that his mates NEED him and all those like him :0)
I am going to be down your way next week Neil and if you say nasty things about me I am going to throw noodles onto your roof!
I am surprised that Qantas is going back to S.F because it really never did that well with it before when it flew there. As for heavilly discounting fares to open up that market - I wish! However as Qantas is probably the most successful airline in terms of profits I guess they do not need to discount at this stage.
Getting back to British pride or lack thereof, I had the misfortune to go on a cruise which left Harwich (UK) and within the first day I realized that you had to hide from any Pom as you would be ear-bashed about the Government, the NHS, the roads, the immigration, Tony Blair, the Tory Party, the Liberals, pensions, supperannuation and how most people had lost theirs, and the neighbours. One wonders if there is anything at all the the British like about the place. Being married to one I hear enough about it and I too have lived there. The weather is bad but who can afford the cost of housing, travel within the UK, good food and something other than the NHS? It is actually cheaper to get on Ryan Air and fly to Paris than it is to get a train 100 klms up the track in the UK.
Hopefully the Olympics will bring a spirit of togetherness to the country.
Anyway, however and whatever happens I still prefer the Dordogne region of France any time, any day to anything in the rest of Europe.

Low blows, jjah and Melodie. That'll teach me to keep my big trap shut.

What I found interesting in Geordie's post was the implication that the Royal Family is Britain's and not Australia's, despite the fact that Australia retains the Queen as Head of State. Now, I happen to agree that this is the case. Despite our many cultural similarities, Australia is a foreign country. When the Royals put on their travelling salesperson's hat, they promote British products, not Australian, and I believe the Queen recently received the English cricket team but failed to commiserate with the defeated Australians. Well, fair enough - the Royals are Poms, after all, not Australians. It's just a pity so many Australians refuse to accept the obvious.

Back on topic: Geordie also wrote "Similarly with the Chinese, highlight the large Chinese communities with all the corresponding restaurants." I wonder - my daughters, who've been living in China for the last few years, spoke to a Chinese colleague who'd just visited Sydney. She'd been unimpressed to find herself surrounded by so many "foreigners", especially Chinese. "Where were all the Australians?", she asked. Of course, the concept of a multicultural society isn't much appreciated in China, and don't really understand how a Chinese-Australian can regard themselves as Australian.

Hey, Liz, yell out if you need a tour guide.

"it's seen as just too far - even though Sydney is no further from LA than Berlin, say."

From http://gc.kls2.com:

Los Angeles to Berlin: 5,804 miles.
Los Angeles to Sydney: 7,488 miles.

I just got back, and it's bloody FAR. If you're coming from the east coast, it's just about as far as you can get on this earth.

Totally worth it, of course!

As far as what would draw me to such a place, it's hard to say. Your natural wonders are high up on that list, particularly your very peculiar flora and fauna. Not just the Steve Irwin "deadliest snake in the WOILD" stuff, but just koalas and platypuses and wattles and gums.

I do think that you Aussies maybe don't quite understand just what you have there in terms of your ordinary day-to-day life. Kitschy or just ordinary stuff like May Gibbs's Gumnut Babies and Vegemite. I think it's the contrast between English commercial style, with a bit of American frontier brashness, the sometimes harsh landscape and the tropical conditions, that makes it interesting: and the way it comes together into unique "Australianness". Little things like the way your candy bars are British, and you can get a decent cup of tea, but the guy serving it to you is half-Laotian, half-Greek, with that delightful side-of-the-mouth Aussie accent.

One of the coolest things is your vernacular architecture, the terraced houses with the lacy ironwork. Obviously the Sydney Opera House is a jaw-dropper, comparable only to the Eiffel Tower I think; but the ordinary touches are fascinating.

You wouldn't believe how much silliness like "Kath and Kim" makes me want to visit again and again, more than all the clever ad campaigns in the world. I know that Aussies sometimes cringe when they think of the ridiculous things that we Americans think represent them, but really we're the same way; if you come to Seattle I won't be showing you the Chamber of Commerce tour.

And it all boils down to people. Aussies have got to be the friendliest people in the world. So much as rattle a map and you'll be fighting off people wanting to tell you which tram to take and where to get off and what not to miss on the way and where are you from and my sister went to school near there and do you know Bill Gates...

By Gosh I've got it!
Picture this - Kath says "look at mye, look at mye and the next shot is Kims bum with the pants showing that crevice, and as she is walking away she turns and says, well where the bloody hell are you"? Kev has that knowing look on his face and a rye smile. Now that is much more Australian than some sheila in a bikini and a little different too. Maybe no one would understand it but then what does that matter? Perhaps we could even get some Foster's beer swilling Earl's Court ex-pats to applaud or something like that.
I will give you a "help"call Neil if I actually get as far as Canberra - hope to see Alan on Friday and check on his computer problems.

fnarf999 - picky, picky. What's a couple of thousand miles between friends? (I should have remembered my father's advice to "believe none of what you read and half of what you see".)

Would you believe we had a similar experience on the NYC subway when we started perusing the subway map? We actually managed to spark a debate among several commuters about the best way to get to the Met. Then there was the lady at the LAX bus station who involved at least half a dozen people in changing our $20 bill (we hadn't realised that bus drivers don't give change in L.A. and had to fall back on the "dumb Australian" defence).

And one of my strongest memories of China is how helpful, welcoming and chatty (even if it was in Mandarin) ordinary Chinese were to us. Like those New Yorkers on the subway they could never agree on an answer to a particular problem, but they certainly enjoyed arguing about it.

Maybe there's something about a helpless-looking traveller that brings out the best in people. Well, most people.

Liz, check "Kath & Kim" on imdb.com -it's actually built up a small but devoted band of fans in both the UK and US, although sadly it doesn't have the recognition factor of Mr Irwin.

<<Getting back to British pride or lack thereof, I had the misfortune to go on a cruise which left Harwich (UK) and within the first day I realized that you had to hide from any Pom as you would be ear-bashed about the Government, the NHS, the roads, the immigration, Tony Blair, the Tory Party, the Liberals, pensions, supperannuation and how most people had lost theirs, and the neighbours.>>

Is this uniquely British!

In the next few months I'll be returning to Australia to live permanently so its good to know that I won't have to listen to people whinging about these issues there

Oh yes, the Australian togetherness, Melbournites, Sydneysiders, Queenslanders, & Sand Gropers, all as one, sounds good.

Geordie

Dear Geordie, now don't start getting all defensive, I have spent the afternoon whinging my head off. So its not only you guys that can spit the dummy. Clearly if you leave this forum for a day to jet off to Paris for lunch, you miss some seriously exciting stuff - Neil trying desperately to maintain dignity after the Oprah "incident", Liz_F outwitting us all with her Kath and Kim routine (which sadly, by the way I could visualize and almost fell off my chair laughing) and frnaff999 becoming totally anal about miles (did you measure those yourself by the way?). Clearly you have all not had enough to do and you should have been at lunch with me in Paris at the Jules Verne Restaurant in the Eiffel Tower. Then I spent 3 god damn hours trying to get home via Crappy Jet Airlines - hence the whinging.
Funnily enough and just to get us ALL back on topic here, I was listening to a Triple M podcast on my iPod on the way home and strangely or spookily I should say they were discussing OUR ad. They came up with some excellent variations, which had me rolling in the isles (ok that's an exaggeration that was turbulence) one is that their version would point out that if you were going to mention that "We got all the sharks out of the pool", you could also let everyone know that you could lie on our beaches and get free melanomas and that there were plenty of spiders and snakes to bite you etc etc and as Peter Falconia's family like to say "Where the bloody hell are ya?" Anyway you can hear it for yourself its great on Sydney's Triple M Podcast The Cage 24/2/06. But as Bridget (Triple M) most succinctly put it - it is NOT "how the bloody hell are you?" - its How the bloody ell are you" . Lets just get this right people.
Oh by the way, there was some upstart who said that his kid was going to give him stick about the word "bloody" after hearing that ad, frankly if a delusional parent in Australia thinks thats the worst word they are going to hear - keep taking that medication its clearly working.

Liz,

you're absolutely right...I don't know what I was thinking when I told him he was right!

Jiah, I cracked up reading your post, especially the bit about the "sharks".

Guess where I was last night -- no, not the Jules Verne restaurant, and/or possibly detained by Crappy Airline (hmmm..Ryanair perhaps?) -- no, I was hobnobbing at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco with the Powers to Be at the Australia Tourism Commission. (and the media as well)...
where they "unveiled" the ad campaign.

And the Top Guy said that he thinks the little Shark Boy will become "the breakout star" of the campaign.

I am now the proud possessor of not only a 2006 folding "So Where the Bloody Hell Are you? calendar (with Oprah, oh, er, sorry Neil...I mean OPERA House on front and Rainforest on back), as well as a 3 brochure packet on the why/how and wherefors of the campaign!

I actually DID tell one of the ATC people that there were a number of posts on the site and he was quite glad to hear it -- you guys made his night!

To paraphrase "that's good...people are talking about Australia".

Report Done...over and out!

Regards,

Melodie
Certified Aussie Specialist

Melodie

What accent???

No-one here has an accent - other than you Murricans!

At first I thought Geordie's idea that Chinese tourists would be attracted by Australia's Chinatowns was a bit off beam. I mean, why would you take a 10-hour flight to see what you can see at home?

But then I wondered: maybe the same approach would stimulate tourism from the UK? How about an Australian Costa del Sol, where I understand English tourists go to drink Newcastle Brown Ale in faux-English pubs, eat fish and chips and get sunburnt?

The most likely venues for Costa del Sol Down Under would be either Perth or Adelaide. In either city British visitors would stand a fair chance of finding a relative, and both have plenty of opportutities for sunburn. I think Adelaide wins because it has no surf to speak of, and the seafront to the south of the city would lend itself to miles of apartment blocks, English-style pubs and best of all, an antipodean Blackpool with amusement piers. Besides, South Australia needs the business.

It would be an easy matter to import a few hundred Indian and Pakistani families to dispense chicken tikka masala, and fish and chips are no problem. The infamous Adelaide pie floater could also be trotted out to give visitors an insight into the city's gastronomic credentials, and local breweries could churn out English brews under licence - I'm sure the taste of Adelaide's water could be disguised somehow.

It's about time our tourist promotion bodies started earning their money and thinking laterally.

Just heard the ad's been banned in the UK, you can check it out in the www.smh.com.au

jjah, off to the Jules Verne, tough life eh. I went there a couple of years ago with my wife and really enjoyed it, but it is a bit old fashioned in that I got a menu with prices and she didn't.

Neil, Chicken Tikka Masala is already firmly established and your ideas on Costa del Sol are almost complete at Manly, Coogee, & Bondi.

My experience of spending 5 years in Hong Kong & China, unless things have changed dramatically, is that the only food that the majority will eat at home or overseas is Chinese or fast food. Ditto for the Japanese, hence show them the Chinese/Japanese restaurants.

Geordie

Have been following this thread with great interest and quite a few chuckles and a few fair-dinkum rofls;
now the fertilizer has hit the cooling device ... from you guessed it, Old Blighty!

In today's Sydney Morning Herald:

"UK restricts 'bloody hell' tourism ads

Australia's new multi-million dollar tourism advertising campaign has fallen foul of censors in the United Kingdom.

The British television advertising regulator has banned the "Where the bloody hell are you" tag line from being broadcast on TV.

The full version of the ad will be allowed to be shown in British cinemas, and in print and online campaigns.

Federal Tourism Minister Fran Bailey says the regulators are being precious.

"All I can say is I think that they've lost their sense of humour," she said.

"This is the country that gave us you know, Benny Hill, the Two Ronnies and Ali G, and suddenly our cheeky advertising campaign seems to have got under their skin."

... so maybe the tagline should be sanitised to "Where in the plurry nether world is one?"

Geordie, I do agree with you about Chinese eating preferences. As for CSS (Costa del Sol del Sud), I hear what you say but can't see the pier concept working at Sydney beaches, somehow, although Botany Bay is a possibility, especially if we shorten Brighton-le-Sands to just "Brighton".

On balance, though, I think a virgin site will suit the concept best. Whichever entrepreneur picks it up will want his patrons to spend their money right where they are and not be seduced away by nearby sinful attractions. In this respect Adelaide is very much a low-risk option. In fact we could even exchange the customers' pounds for CSS Money, as is done by the Japanese operators of Green Island (am I right there, Pat?)

I'm sure the South Australian government would be very keen. Some years ago the Japanese and Australian governments came up with a crackpot scheme to build a futuristic city with the snappy name "Multifunction Polis", and for a while all state governments were bidding to host it. Eventually it was announced that the MFP would be established in a swamp near Port Adelaide, a sure sign that the idea was dead in the water, and has since sunk without trace. Adelaide is about ready for another Big Idea.

(Actually I remember a cartoon in the Sydney Morning Herald depicting a group of Japanese businessmen reading the news that the MFP would be located in Adelaide. One of them is exclaiming "Aderaide? Aderaide? The beaches are ROUSY in Aderaide!&quot

Ok Neil, Adelaide it is, I have the perfect airline to ferry people in.

http://www.springwise.com/newbusines...kersXpress.htm

Unfortunately it never got off the ground, literally, but I loved the VB Engine Covers, and the on-board 24 hour nightclub with free booze.

Geordie

No longer, Neil, in fact for many years. There was a stage when Daikyo did this, outrage from locals and other tourists. Change your money into blah, blah, to spend on an Australian island, just too silly. But 12 or 15 years ago, who could blame an old cane farmer who'd worked his ring off all his life not to sell out to Japanese interests who were going to give him a squillion bucks to turn his cane farm into a mega-expensive golf course. In reality it only happened a couple of times, then Japan's economy went down the shute - now Daikyo's sold just about all their interests in Cairns and area.

Geordie, my first thought was, who on earth would be brave, mad or desperate enough to sign up to be cabin crew? Other backpackers, I suppose. Oh, well, another great idea bites the dust.

Actually I was thinking of another demographic, a sort of younger and more gregarious Arthur Daley (and Her Indoors).

Anyway, I'm abandoning this line of thought. The trouble with you Poms is that being wind-up experts yourselves you're just too hard to get a bite out of.