Ten young New Zealand women have been flown to the mid-north of South Australia � just outside the historic town of Burra � to film a new reality TV show, Miss Personality.From Beauty contest entrants find a rough touchdown in Aussie realityThe women, chosen in auditions and tests in New Zealand were told they were participating in a show involving overseas travel and a beauty pageant, but were left in the middle of nowhere.
Enough of these already!!!!
ADELAIDE will hold the largest international travel trade show in the southern hemisphere in 2006.From SA on biggest travel map in 2006
Malta has the best infrastructure in the world but lags behind in price competitiveness and performs abysmally in the environment sector, according to a global tourism survey carried out by the World Travel and Tourism Council.From Malta tops infrastructure table of global tourism surveyThe country also scores well in the technology and human tourism fields, in a Competitiveness Monitor carried out among 212 countries by the London-based organisation.
The study shows that Australia has the best human resources, French Polynesia the best environment, San Marino the best technology, while the social development table is topped by Norway.
The human tourism table, reflecting how human development has advanced through tourism, is headed by Fiji, while the island of Aruba topped the openness table, which reflects how easy it is to visit a country.
It's amazing what people study....
"Rough Guides are taking over from Lonely Planet as the tourist's best friend," says a quote from New Zealand teen magazine Jetmag on the cover of the latest Rough Guide to New Zealand.From The Rough Guide to New ZealandNot, in my opinion, if the two companies' new guides to New Zealand are anything to go by.
I never was an LP girl, so I don't know how much I'd agree with this...
The Northern Territory Backpackers Association says it does not believe that the backpacker market is shock-proofing the tourism industry.From More flights sought to boost NT tourist sectorTourism Australia says that over the past five years the number of international backpackers travelling to Australia has grown at twice the rate of all international visitors.
Backpacker Association president Bardia Bodaghi says that in the Territory, the backpacker sector has suffered as much as any other part of the tourism industry due to international terrorist attacks.
A rubber ring, pillow, hairbrush and a pair of sunglasses are just a few of the luxury items the I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here contestants are taking into the jungle, it was revealed.From Series starts filming in QueenslandThe 10 personalities made the choices on the eve of being sent to their camp at Murwillumbah near Brisbane on Australia's east coast.
Illegal backpacker hostels offering Third World-style accommodation are putting lives at risk and costing the state economy up to $60 million, the Government has been warned.From $150 a week for a bed with rats, cockroaches
Oh. Nasty.
Australia and the US will trial a system to find up to three million passports missing across the Asia Pacific region.From Australia and US on trail of missing passports
I think it is kinda scary they didn't have an alert system like this before...
Online flight booking agency Zuji has become the latest entrant to New Zealand's Internet travel industry, launching a site managed by Gullivers Pacific.From Zuji becomes latest entrant to online travel industryZuji, which has sites based in Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, Korea and Taiwan, says it can access more than 400 airlines, 50,000 hotels and 50 car hire companies.
Yeah, but BnA is still better though.
KATOOMBA, Australia _ We settle into our room, then check e-mail, lounge on comfy couches and grill steaks for dinner. We trade stories and play cards with travelers from around the world. This was life in a youth hostel, the sort of place I thought I had left behind in my youth.From Hostel territory
Bleck. Nice fluff piece.
Rebecca Turner, a legal secretary living in Sydney, Australia, decided that there should be a fare free day, and she asked her fellow Sydneysiders supported her and just not buy a train ticket.From Why Pay To Travel On Public Transport, When You Can Go For FreeThis seemed quite an attractive proposition, and more and more people thought it was a good idea, and supported her.
Eventually the state premier caved in, and declared it a fare free day.
Sweet! If it's a free day, then I don't have to worry about giving an excuse about why I'm traveling on a student concession without a student card.
A rubber ring, pillow, hairbrush and a pair of sunglasses are just a few of the luxury items the I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here contestants are taking into the jungle, it was revealed.From Series starts filming in QueenslandThe 10 personalities made the choices on the eve of being sent to their camp at Murwillumbah near Brisbane on Australia's east coast.
Learning to surf on the golden beaches of New South Wales is a humbling experience, says Christopher Wakling, but once you're up...From Make a big splash down under
I could never stand up, though.....
AUSTRALIAN sailor Christopher Packer, who is being held in a Bali police jail on weapons charges, said yesterday he was not a criminal and was guilty only of failing to tick a box on a form.From Thrown in jail `for failing to tick a box'
This is actually the family friend of a good friend of mine...I would think that he'd be ok, but those are still some really serious charges...
Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon Chaisang yesterday embarked on a tour of Australia and New Zealand to sign agreements with Thai restaurant associations and open a 'Thai Kitchen to the World' festival.From Thai food fairs open in Australia and New Zealand
Mmmm...thai food. There's this great restaurant near work that we all love...makes me hungry just thinking about it....
This Christmas, Global Yacht Racing is providing ordinary people with a passion for adventure travel the opportunity to experience the ultimate challenge in adventure holidays � ocean yacht racing. Global Yacht Racing�s next major race package is a gruelling 630nm ocean race starting in Sydney and racing to Hobart, Tasmania starting on the 13th December 2004. This year is the 60th anniversary of the race which has become a summer icon in Australia and with an adrenaline filled fleet already lined up, the start looks set to be spectacular.From An extreme Christmas Holiday - the infamous Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
I want to go on a boat ride!
It appears the sun is still shining brightly on Queensland's lucrative tourism industry, with the state's main tourism body showing the sunshine state is still Australia's most popular tourist destination.From Sunshine state still tops for touristsAccording to Tourism Queensland's annual report, the sector injected more than $18 billion into the Queensland economy during the last financial year.
Queensland attracted 39 per cent of Australia's interstate visitors for 2003 to 2004, 15 per cent more than New South Wales and three times as many as Victoria.
I wonder how they measure that, and seperate it from business/work travelers?
Despite competing in an era of heavily discounted air travel, the high-speed tilt train service between Brisbane and Cairns had almost 70,000 passengers in its first year of operation.
Although the full price of a one-way trip from Brisbane to Cairns is $280, pensioners can travel for as little as $22.
The train completes the 1680-kilometre journey in 25 hours, seven hours less than the previous rail service. From World's fastest on narrow tracks
Ugh, that's still a long time to be spending on a train! But for $22....
PETALING JAYA: Malaysians were the biggest group of people who were refused entry into Australia in the past year because they �could not convince� Australian Immigration officials that they were entering for tourism purposes and not for employment.From Over 400 refused entry into AustraliaAustralian High Commissioner James Wise said 419 Malaysians were refused entry at the country�s airports and immediately sent home under such circumstances despite holding a valid electronic travel authority (ETA).
No alcohol will be allowed during the annual backpacker Christmas Day party on Australia's Bondi Beach, which attracts 40,000 people, after hundreds of often drunken revelers had to be rescued from the surf last year.From Christmas cheer without the beer
I understand where they are coming from, but what is Christmas at Bondi without some booze?
People play video games for many reasons. Sometimes they're after escapism. Sometimes they fancy the idea of being a hobbit. Sometimes they just want to shoot things.From London calling for expatsRarely, however, do they get the chance to drive by their local pub, or take a cruise past where they used to work. But a group of homesick English backpackers are getting just that chance with Sony's new PlayStation 2 game, The Getaway: Black Monday, at Sydney backpacker club Scubar.
The sequel to smash hit The Getaway, Black Monday has faithfully replicated 40 square kilometres of London as the centrepiece of the game. The Tower of London, Piccadilly, Trafalgar Square, the Underground ... they're all there. The level of detail is frightening, right down to specific shops, pubs and buildings.
"I recognise the shops and the junctions and buildings and parades," says Scott, an English backpacker who has been in Australia for three years. "You just want to hop out of the car and head there. I really miss home, so this is like almost going back there."
Scubar is definitely where I celebrated my 20th birthday. *Grimace*
Australia's travel industry is to take lessons from across the Tasman.From Aussie tourism gets Kiwi knowhowThe Australian government is hiring former Tourism New Zealand executive Ian Macfarlane as its top tourism marketing head. He revived New Zealand's tourism sector with his "100 per cent pure New Zealand" branding campaign.
Today New Zealand, population four million, attracts two million visitors annually. Australia, which has 20 million people, attracts five million
Now how many of those visited both Australia and New Zealand, and how many just visited the other country because it was close by and not their initial destination?
INCREASING business travel demand across the globe is set to push up airfares and accommodation prices in all markets in 2005, with costs in Australia forecast to rise by between 2 and 4 per cent.From Airfares, hotels to cost more - Business Travel - Business Surveys SeriesThe latest American Express Global Business Travel Forecast survey predicts domestic economy airfares in Australia will rise between 2 and 3 per cent in 2005, and international business class fares by between 3 and 4 per cent.
Apparently, at some point during my fairly expensive educational process, I was never informed of the true size of Australia. I've always assumed I could drive south to north in three hours or so, and maybe five or six to get east to west.From 22 years old, and soon to be a man of the worldThis apparently is a rather egregious error, as Australia is in fact about the size of the U.S. Who woulda thought? I just assumed that when people said, ''If you think the weather in Sydney's too chilly, you should go north to Brisbane, the water will be much better,'' it was some sort of weird Gulf Stream that made the water super hot only an hour's drive north. I'm not really sure why I was under this impression, but apparently I am also the only person who thought this, and well, I just feel silly.
Cutesy article
In my post-collegiate travels around Europe, I had stayed at all manner of hostels and remembered them principally for their institutional bunk beds, curfews and showers that I would not venture into without wearing plastic flip flops.From Trip Down Under shows hostels not just for 20-somethingsNow, in my mid-30s, my boyfriend and I were preparing for a five-week trip to Australia and New Zealand. Knowing we couldn't afford to stay in charming bed-and-breakfasts for 35 nights straight, Paul suggested youth hostels. I was skeptical, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions we made.
Fellow travel agents are pouring cold water on the Flight Centre's suggestion that $1 airfares between New Zealand and Australia could soon be a reality.From Too few for $1 airfare dreamFlight Centre says $1 airfares would reflect what is happening in Europe and North America, where competition from bargain airlines is pushing down prices.
However, the Travel Agents Association says the Pacific's comparative lack of population means such prices would be unsustainable.
I don't really see that happening in North America, either! Maybe they were thinking Asia.....
Australians travelling overseas were directly threatened by terrorism, the federal government said.From Terrorism threaten Aussie travellersThe Department of Foreign Affairs has updated its general advice to Australian travellers, warning the threat of attacks in many overseas countries remained.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said Australians were particularly warned against travelling to the Ivory Coast, where 21 Australians were currently staying.
A DRUG addict serving a life sentence for murdering a young British backpacker by pushing her off a bridge in Australia has launched an appeal against his conviction.From Backpacker killer to fight convictionIan Previte, 32, was convicted on October 15 of the murder and robbery of 19-year-old Caroline Stuttle in the Queensland state city of Bundaberg on April 10, 2002.
Of course he is going to fight it....everybody fights 'em. *Shakes head*
T-Mobile has struck a deal with six international wireless operators to simplify roaming and billing for travelers using Wi-Fi abroad, the company said Wednesday.From T-Mobile Inks Wi-Fi Roaming Pacts
The Australian travel industry, having survived SARS, the Iraq war and the upturn in terrorism was facing new domestic challenges, Harvey World Travel Ltd said.From Travel industry faces new challengesMeanwhile another operator in the industry, Transonic Travel Ltd, has decided to switch its focus internationally, leaving the domestic travel scene to others.
SwiftPix installed its new digital photo kiosks in two Backpacker Hostels in Brisbane, according to a news release. The kiosks feature a wizard-like interface that walks customers through the digital photo process in four steps.From SwiftPix introduces digital photo kiosk
It's about time someone did this!
Australians travelling overseas were directly threatened by terrorism, the federal government said.From Terrorism threaten Aussie travellersThe Department of Foreign Affairs has updated its general advice to Australian travellers, warning the threat of attacks in many overseas countries remained.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said Australians were particularly warned against travelling to the Ivory Coast, where 21 Australians were currently staying.
THE biggest joke of the past fortnight was the announcement by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers that it has made progress on approval of the new sponsored top level domain .travel.From They won't get far with .travel
Interesting viewpoint...
IT IS not unusual to find an Australian working in a pub or hotel in Scotland, but a country inn has taken the idea to extremes.From When it comes to service, it pays to think AustralianOf the 12 staff at Dalmunzie Country Hotel, at the Spittal of Glenshee, 11 are from Australia - and its owners claim that is because Scottish workers are not up to the job.
The article also talks about how an estimated 300,000 Australians are working in the UK at any one time. No wonder it seems like everyone spends some time there!
A German adventurer has become the first person to travel across Australia on a kite-powered skateboard.From Kite-powered skateboard crosses countryDirk Gion travelled 3,000 kilometres from Adelaide to Darwin on the special 1.3-metre skateboard, which is powered by large kites, according to his website earthflyer.com.
Australian wine country is like that. It's a new frontier of that last frontier country. Millions of gallons of Australian wines are pouring into the United States with cutesy animal-related names like yellowtail and the Little Penguin, but those are coined by big corporations to tickle the fancy of undiscerning American consumers.From Aussie Stomping Grounds:Those conglomerates now control more than 90 percent of Australian wine production. About 1,600 small wineries bottle the rest. These smaller vintners consider themselves farmers who practice a bit of agricultural alchemy to produce nectars from little more than vines grown deep into the thin soil, which manage to flourish despite scant rain and sometimes harsh temperatures.
Good article, crappy headline
"The outlook for HWT remains one of growth; solid organic growth from our established markets of Australia, New Zealand and Southern Africa, and dynamic growth from our move into the U.K." he said.From Australia's Harvey World Expects 20% 1H Core Pft Growth
That's a pretty decent jump....yeah for travel!
They're a literal bunch once you cross the border into Queensland. And the further north you head, it seems, the more literal they become.From Queensland's bay of plentyAt Hervey Bay, the whale-watching capital of Australia, they boast with an uncharacteristic degree of hyperbole.
The article aslo talks up Fraser Island and a number of other attractions in the area.
The author of this month's Esquire magazine piece on Ricky Williams believes if Dolphins coach Dave Wannstedt and the estranged running back handled the pivotal phone call in July differently, Williams wouldn't have retired.From Esquire writer: Call made Ricky retireEsquire Staff Writer Chris Jones, who admittedly smoked marijuana with Williams a "few times" during his eight-day stay in a backpacker's commune in Byron Bay on the east coast of Australia in early September, said in the article that "even in the middle of dialing [Wannstedt], Ricky had no real intention of quitting."
Wasn't this football player the same one the media praised for taking the time to travel???
AAA Tourism�s well-known accommodation classification scheme has been expanded to Fiji with the Outrigger On The Lagoon recently being awarded five-star rating.From Star rating heads to FijiThe group already provides ratings for approximately 11,000 accommodation properties in Australia, but this is the first time the scheme has been applied internationally.
I wonder why they went to Fiji instead of NZ first?
He estimates treatments in Sydney are up 800 per cent in the past four years. A survey by the City of Sydney found almost eight out of every 10 backpacker hostels in the eastern suburbs had infestations. One national chain of hostels had 5000 infected beds last summer. In Queensland a luxury resort had 36 rooms out of action at one stage.From Careful who you get into bed with ... the bugs are back
OH. EW.
Australia, the world's favourite travel destination, is losing ground to New Zealand at a highly competitive top end of the incentive market.From Incentive travel: Aussie chase Kiwi style luxury
Australia's gettin even flashier...
A MELBOURNE-based property developer is the new owner of the Beechworth jail, with plans to develop the historic site into an upmarket tourist attraction.From Cells sell as major tourist attraction
It's kinda like the Oregon McMenamin's, huh? Thanks to Jen Leo for this tidbit.
SPRING rain, warmth and excessive lawn mowing have combined to cause a plague of flies in Sydney and surrounding areas.From Fly and maggot plague hits city
Nasty! Anyone currently there want to attest to this?
Good news if you're planning a direct flight from Oz to Malaysia
From beaches and swaying palms to kangaroos and koalas, Princess' new Australia South Pacific brochure can help travelers choose the perfect cruise or cruisetour to this often dreamed of part of the world.From Princess Publishes New Australia-South Pacific Brochure
Highlighted cruises include "Diamond Princess' Heads Down Under" - a cruise between Australia and NZ.
VIRGIN Atlantic is urging the competition watchdog to impose conditions that include Qantas and British Airways relinquishing slots at London's Heathrow Airport before it gives a final blessing to the Joint Services Agreement between the two airlines.From Virgin hits kangaroo route tie-up
MINING, education, health and public service sectors will need to aggressively recruit young people to survive, the first in-depth analysis of the state's workforce has revealed.From Great youth huntFewer than 10 per cent of people aged under 25 are choosing careers in these industries � sparking a potential labour crisis.
Hospitality, tourism and retail are most successful at attracting young people, with more than 35 per cent of employees aged under 25.
Doesn't surprise me in the slightest....
A 64-year-old Shropshire grandmother has fulfiled a lifetime ambition by backpacking her way around the world.From Backpacker gran wins award for adventure
Among the places this hot-to-trot gran stopped? Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Borneo, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and the Cook Islands.
VIRGIN Atlantic is urging the competition watchdog to impose conditions that include Qantas and British Airways relinquishing slots at London's Heathrow Airport before it gives a final blessing to the Joint Services Agreement between the two airlines.From Virgin hits kangaroo route tie-up
AUSTRALIAN men are shedding their macho stereotypes to reveal a new sensitive and emotionally savvy identity, relationship experts say.
From Men craving for romance (and Joe E.)
I'm not really going to comment on this one....any Australians have an opinion on this?
1) You've had an argument with your mate over whether Ford or Holden makes the better car!From You know you're Australian when...2) You've done the "hot sand" dance at the beach while running from the ocean back to your towel.
3) You start using words like "reckon" and "root" and call people "mate".
Thanks to Borderland for passing this on! :)
NSW police remain baffled by the separate disappearances of two young tourists in Sydney last week and hold fears for the safety of both women.From Few clues after backpackers vanish
It's always frightening when someone dissapears...discuss this article on the boards here
Despite an overwhelming thumbs-up for scenery, friendly people and wild tourist attractions, the new edition of the Rough Guide to New Zealand has some warnings for visitors.From Tourist book gives NZ a rough time
I also think that Wellington is the best city in the country, but isn't the scenery the reason you go to NZ? 'Cause it's certainly not for the partying.