A report in The Sydney Morning Herald says that Australian tourism chiefs are banking on the epic romance Australia, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, to deliver a tourism bonanza not seen since the Crocodile Dundee franchise cast the country as the land of the larrikin.
The country’s peak tourism body, Tourism Australia, is in talks with the director, Baz Luhrmann, about creating a large-scale marketing campaign centred on the film with the stars playing a role in pushing Australia as a tourist destination that can offer more than the major sites.
Set in the years leading up to World War II the film portrays the affair between an English aristocrat and a cattle drover, played by Kidman and Jackman respectively, and takes in a sweep of Western Australia and Queensland, parts of which are bracing themselves for a flood visitors on the film’s release next year.
The Sydney Morning Herald understands the marketing could play on the film’s romance to position Australia as a destination for lovers and rather than replace the So Where the Bloody Hell Are You? campaign, there are plans to incorporate the controversial line into the Australia-themed campaign.
“Romance and adventure aren’t necessarily the way that we have portrayed Australia in the past,” said a source close to discussions.
A spokesman for the film’s distributor, 20th Century Fox, Steve Newman confirmed talks were under way and said in a statement that Luhrmann would be “thrilled” to work with the tourism body.
Tourism Australia declined to comment.
While a number of films have helped put Australian locations on the map, few have had the effect that Crocodile Dundee had in the US following its release there in 1986, where it capitalised on the awareness generated by the Paul Hogan “Shrimp on the barbie” ads.
Following the film’s release arrivals from the US and Canada shot up by a third.
Even films that could be considered tourism liabilities appear to have helped; there were fears that 2005’s Wolf Creek might deter backpackers but in the year after its release numbers rose by nearly 10 per cent.
A film about a man-eating crocodile, Rogue, to be released next month, is expected to do the same for the Northern Territory.
John Morse, who helped promote Crocodile Dundee and is now the chairman of Tourism Victoria, said: “There’s no question there’s going to be a boost.”
Locations featured in the film are readying themselves for the surge. Bowen on Queensland’s Whitsunday coast, which stood in as 1930s Darwin in the film, had a record 20,000 visitors during the eight weeks of filming earlier this year.
Places worth a celluloid visit:
Wolf Creek – Northern Territory and Broome, Western Australia
Man from Snowy River – Snowy River, ACT
Finding Nemo – Great Barrier Reef and Sydney
Mad Max – Broken Hill
Storm Boy – Coorang Wetland, South Australia
Ten Canoes – Arnhem Land
Crocodile Dundee – Kakadu
Picnic at Hanging Rock – Mt Diogenes, Victoria
The Castle – Bonnie Doon, Victoria
Report by The Mole and The Sydney Morning Herald
