Despite costing Tourism Australia AU$1.5m, US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey’s visit to the country, along with 300 audience members, will not boost tourism as much as is needed.
This is the claim made by Australia’s Tourism and Transport Forum which said that although the celebrity’s televised visit with her audience will attract more overseas visitors, the increasing numbers of Australians holidaying abroad will more than offset the boost.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, June’s National Visitor Survey, just released by Tourism Research Australia, shows that overnight visitor numbers for the 12 months ending June 2010 fell 1%. Compared to the year ending June 2008, domestic overnight trips are down 8.1% and visitor nights were down 7.6%.
