Australia News
Promoting Australia
The Australian tourism board is busy promoting the country as an ideal destination, focusing efforts in Latin America, to GIs (Off-Duty Travel Opens Australia As Vacation Destination) and around Australia (Authentic Australia - How do I find that?). Personally, I’d like it if people didn’t discover just how awesome some of the hidden parts of Australia are…
Date: July 1st, 2005 | 1 comment
Sydney hostels risk lives
Watch out backpackers! Sydney hostels risk lives and the goverment is powerless to stop them! Well, according to this study at least, which claims that “about 100 �shonky� hostels operate in and around the city, offering 1,350 beds, according to a report by the Australian Tourism Export Council. Most are overcrowded and dangerous, with no smoke alarms, fire extinguishers or sprinklers, as well as inadequate exits.” Although I do think there should be some standards for these hostels, it’s up to the backpacker to ensure his or her own safety as well. Think about it - …
Date: June 29th, 2005 | No Comments
New breed of tourists
Don’t get your medical work done in expensive Australia, Europe or the U.S. - head to Thailand! A New breed of tourists are heading to the country for cheap medical care that is on par with that they would receive at home, with numbers only expected to rise. Especially cool? The “dental resort”. Swweet.
Date: June 27th, 2005 | No Comments
Business travel group attacks air security fare-rise plan
As airfare prices continue to climb with the escalating cost of fuel, taxes and ’security fees’, business travelers are trying to put their foot down by attacking air security fare-rise plan. According to Australasian Business Travel Association, business travelers would bear the brunt of the cost. I wonder if they’d be singing a different tune if a domestic attack was carried out on Australian soil…
Date: June 19th, 2005 | No Comments
Australia's Next Tourism Destination
Now that Bali is once again on the outs and Fiji has been long discovered, I predict that still-more-stable-than-PNG East Timor will be the next major tourism destination for beach-seeking Aussies. The IHT calls the place, a scruffy island paradise, which isn’t a bad thing to be. Unfortunately, it’s not ‘easy’ to travel in so it can’t draw the honeymooning crowd yet, and what restaurants and accommodations they do have, they’re expensive (catering to the UN and aid-worker crowd), so the backpackers haven’t shown up either. Give it ten years, though, and it’ll be the place …
Date: June 14th, 2005 | No Comments
Australia's Travel Influence
For a country with such a small population, Australia carries a lot of weight in the international travel area. I don’t have hard numbers to back this up, but I imagine that a higher percentage of Australians have traveled overseas when compared with Americans and perhaps other western-based tourists. Australia’s impact on its smaller neighbors is especially large: Fiji Visitors Bureau wants the Government to improve health facilities in the west as it embarks on aggressive marketing to lure the ’silver market’ while Australia important for Tahiti tourism growth. New Caledonia, Bali and NZ also …
Date: June 30th, 2005 | 2 comments
Tourism Woes
NZ tourism is worried because Overseas travel hits domestic market after a 22% increase in international travel last year. Australia’s worried because Tourism fears Japanese getting over Down Under. Where are they all going instead? China.
Date: June 28th, 2005 | No Comments
Move to stamp out illegal backpacker operators
Authorities Move to stamp out illegal backpacker operators in a new taskforce designed to protect backpackers and guests that visit New South Wales. “There are real dangers associated with trying to cram people - more than you should - into premises that haven’t been set up and designed for backpacking,” said NSW Tourism Minster Sandra Nori. There are about 380,000 backpackers that visit the state every year. I’m sure everyone but the operators thinks this is a good idea after the fire in Queensland a few years ago that killed 15 travelers, but may cause a price …
Date: June 23rd, 2005 | No Comments
Travel warning to Indonesia updated
More reasons to avoid travel to Bali and elsewhere in Indonesia: according to the Australian government, terrorists are in the ‘advanced stages’ of planning attacks. The warning has been updated appropriately. My question is this: if the Australian government can know that terrorists are in advanced stages of planning, should they be able to figure out what those plans are? Maybe I’m just missing something here…
Date: June 18th, 2005 | No Comments
Australia says militants planning hotel attacks in Indonesia
More good news for Indonesian tourism: as if enough people weren’t avoiding Bali and the rest of the coutnry already, Australia says militants planning hotel attacks in Indonesia. Sources say that they’re due to occur around noon at Jakarta hotels frequented by foreigners. What they’re hoping to accomplish, I have no idea. Hopefully they’ll be stopped and this will just be another empty threat.
Date: June 12th, 2005 | No Comments