Visiting British branding expert Simon Anholt, speaking at an education conference in Sydney, has questioned the worth of Tourism Australia’s decision to bring out US talk show host Oprah Winfrey and her audience for a series of programmes in December
Anholt said Australia was ranked best in the world for natural beauty and as a place to visit if money was no object.
But he said the success of Australia’s tourism promotion campaigns had produced an “unbalanced” view of the country.
”What you have is an image of a country that is considered to be very decorative, but not very useful,” he said.
Anholt, who has advised more than 40 countries on national identity and reputation, said Australia relied too much on ”logos and slogans” in its efforts to change people’s minds about the country.
Australia is viewed as the ”dumb blonde” of the world, attractive but shallow and unintelligent, he said,
