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Sydney - Oprah Winfrey's visit to Australia could prove a shot in the arm for the country's ailing tourism industry, but much more is needed to stem the sector's prolonged slump, experts say.
Winfrey, one of the world's most powerful celebrities, sparked a frenzy after announcing she would bring filming of her smash-hit talk show's final season to Australia for a week, with 300 audience members and 150 crew in tow.
"Oprah's Ultimate Australian Adventure" will take in coral reefs and vineyards, shopping, cuisine, and culminate in a recording session before 6 000 people on the steps of Sydney's Opera House, rebranded the “Oprah House".
Local authorities handed over US$4.7m to lure the US megastar to Australia for her first international show, with officials calling it a priceless opportunity to showcase the nation to the world.
"We've obviously got our investment back in spades already, and all that programming is still to come," Tourism Australia's managing director Andrew McEvoy said of the frenzied publicity that followed last week's announcement.
Personal thumbs-up
For the cost of a relatively small number of US television ads, officials said Australia would get two hours of daytime TV content syndicated to 145 countries, coverage in Winfrey's magazine and on her radio station, not to mention her personal thumbs-up.
"The Oprah endorsement is very valuable," said Christopher Brown, managing director of the Tourism and Transport Forum. "Her viewers trust her implicitly and products she recommends do very well, almost without exception."
Pundits have valued the exposure at between A$17m and A$26m, with Tourism Australia hoping to link the event with its recently launched "There's Nothing Like Australia" campaign, worth A$150m.
High-impact weapon
"The Oprah visit is not a silver bullet, but it's a great high-impact weapon to have in the arsenal," Brown told AFP.
Australia has been hit by the local currency's near-parity to the US dollar on the back of booming mining exports to Asia.
Cashed-up Aussies are abandoning iconic locations such as the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru (Ayers Rock) for cheaper trips to Southeast Asia, while the surging dollar makes travel to Australia too expensive for a growing number of people.
"Our inbound market has been in serious decline and our domestic market is heading overseas at a greater rate than we've ever seen before," explained Asia-Pacific ecotourism expert Tony Charters.
"There's something like a million more people that fly out of Australia each year than fly in."
International tourism to Australia had grown by an average of just 1.4% between 2004 and 2009, turning a A$4bn tourism trade surplus in 2001 to a deficit of more than A$9bn this year.
We can’t win
Visitor numbers to the Great Barrier Reef had stagnated at 1990 levels, and Charters said Australia had "lost the momentum, lost the innovative edge" it enjoyed in the 1980s, when it was a hotspot for nature and culture tours.
"The entire industry really needs a push of the reset button, because our currency is likely to stay high," he said.
"We have to work at building up a market that's prepared to pay for quality and pay for unique experiences because one thing's for sure - we can't win on price."
Asia would be crucial to Australia's future as tens of millions joined the burgeoning middle classes in China and India, and carbon taxes to reduce air pollution hit long-haul travel.
"Australia is an aspiration holiday for people in those (Asian) countries and we definitely have to focus on that," Charters said, with "ramifications for our language skills and the sort of products we offer".
Return on investment
Winfrey's popular chat show is available on satellite networks in a number of Asian countries including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Pakistan and China.
Brown said Australia's investment had "paid for itself already, and will return multiples of that just in terms of airtime in the US".
"It'd cost millions to buy a few networked ads during the Oprah show, and the impact that would have is a tiny fraction of the value this exercise will generate," he said. "The return on investment is outstanding."
The Oprah Winfrey Show touches down in Australia on December 7.
Winfrey, one of the world's most powerful celebrities, sparked a frenzy after announcing she would bring filming of her smash-hit talk show's final season to Australia for a week, with 300 audience members and 150 crew in tow.
"Oprah's Ultimate Australian Adventure" will take in coral reefs and vineyards, shopping, cuisine, and culminate in a recording session before 6 000 people on the steps of Sydney's Opera House, rebranded the “Oprah House".
Local authorities handed over US$4.7m to lure the US megastar to Australia for her first international show, with officials calling it a priceless opportunity to showcase the nation to the world.
"We've obviously got our investment back in spades already, and all that programming is still to come," Tourism Australia's managing director Andrew McEvoy said of the frenzied publicity that followed last week's announcement.
Personal thumbs-up
For the cost of a relatively small number of US television ads, officials said Australia would get two hours of daytime TV content syndicated to 145 countries, coverage in Winfrey's magazine and on her radio station, not to mention her personal thumbs-up.
"The Oprah endorsement is very valuable," said Christopher Brown, managing director of the Tourism and Transport Forum. "Her viewers trust her implicitly and products she recommends do very well, almost without exception."
Pundits have valued the exposure at between A$17m and A$26m, with Tourism Australia hoping to link the event with its recently launched "There's Nothing Like Australia" campaign, worth A$150m.
High-impact weapon
"The Oprah visit is not a silver bullet, but it's a great high-impact weapon to have in the arsenal," Brown told AFP.
Australia has been hit by the local currency's near-parity to the US dollar on the back of booming mining exports to Asia.
Cashed-up Aussies are abandoning iconic locations such as the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru (Ayers Rock) for cheaper trips to Southeast Asia, while the surging dollar makes travel to Australia too expensive for a growing number of people.
"Our inbound market has been in serious decline and our domestic market is heading overseas at a greater rate than we've ever seen before," explained Asia-Pacific ecotourism expert Tony Charters.
"There's something like a million more people that fly out of Australia each year than fly in."
International tourism to Australia had grown by an average of just 1.4% between 2004 and 2009, turning a A$4bn tourism trade surplus in 2001 to a deficit of more than A$9bn this year.
We can’t win
Visitor numbers to the Great Barrier Reef had stagnated at 1990 levels, and Charters said Australia had "lost the momentum, lost the innovative edge" it enjoyed in the 1980s, when it was a hotspot for nature and culture tours.
"The entire industry really needs a push of the reset button, because our currency is likely to stay high," he said.
"We have to work at building up a market that's prepared to pay for quality and pay for unique experiences because one thing's for sure - we can't win on price."
Asia would be crucial to Australia's future as tens of millions joined the burgeoning middle classes in China and India, and carbon taxes to reduce air pollution hit long-haul travel.
"Australia is an aspiration holiday for people in those (Asian) countries and we definitely have to focus on that," Charters said, with "ramifications for our language skills and the sort of products we offer".
Return on investment
Winfrey's popular chat show is available on satellite networks in a number of Asian countries including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Pakistan and China.
Brown said Australia's investment had "paid for itself already, and will return multiples of that just in terms of airtime in the US".
"It'd cost millions to buy a few networked ads during the Oprah show, and the impact that would have is a tiny fraction of the value this exercise will generate," he said. "The return on investment is outstanding."
The Oprah Winfrey Show touches down in Australia on December 7.
