Tourism in Australia

These breaks give people time to recover, catch up with loved ones, pursue hobbies, and get outside.

Tourism Australia describes the Australian way of life as easygoing, friendly, outdoor-focused, and deeply connected to shared food, coastlines, sport, and community events.

That makes the long weekend feel like a natural expression of the national mood rather than a rare luxury.

The outdoor lifestyle is a huge part of why long weekends are so loved.

Australia's climate and geography make short breaks especially appealing because even three days can feel like a proper reset.

Beach trips, camping, bushwalking, road trips, barbecues, fishing, and national park visits all fit neatly into a long weekend.

Tourism Australia notes that Australians make the most of their coastline and that beach culture is woven into everyday life, from surfing and swimming to picnicking and casual beach cricket.

For many people, a long weekend is enough time for a mini holiday without taking annual leave.

The committee now has to weigh that evide- evidence against other submissions and the testimony it has received.

And, and look, Alex, what, we've heard a lot today from, from the airlines, but there were 177 submissions from, uh, from stakeholders across the country, and one of the major ones was Tourism Australia.

So Tourism Aus says the cost of getting around the country is affecting our ability to spread international visitors beyond the major cities.

Um, it, it said in its submission that flying from Sydney to Bali or New Zealand can be cheaper than getting to destinations like Broome, Uluru, uh, the Whitsundays, or Alice Springs, as you know.

We're the only state in the country that's now got Michelin stars and that instantly puts them on a genuinely international platform.

Tourism Australia has previously said it was first approached to work with Michelin back in 2016, but several discussions since then have proved unfruitful, largely due to the prohibitive cost, tens of millions of dollars.

Across the ditch, New Zealand paid up to $6.3 million over three years to engage the guide.

Premier Malinowskis says the cost for his state was lower than that but wouldn't reveal the exact price tag of the five-year agreement.

Adam Lior says the cost of the deal doesn't diminish the value of the awards.

It's been an awful long time that Michelin has been a little bit pay-for-play in that regard and what Tourism Australia passed and I think Tourism South Australia has really turned into a coup for the state.

But food critic Roberta Muir disagrees.

She argues Michelin stars aren't needed here.

Now, apparently Michelin has been trying to break into the Australian market for years and no one has taken the bait.

Tourism Australia evidently decided against it, but our state government has gone its own way with the state government footing the bill.

Now, we were asked...

Well, they were asked, how much did it cost to get Michelin into South Australia? And they've said, well, it was confidential for commercial reasons.

Is it worth it?

This is a fascinating question because Tourism Australia has been in talks with Michelin for quite a while now with the idea of bringing Michelin to cover all of Australia rather than just one state.

And eventually Tourism Australia balked at the price that was being asked and decided not to go for it.

South Australian tourism then jumped in and said, well, okay, well, we'll just bring them to our state, which I think is a little bit cheeky and also a stroke of genius, because the first Michelin-starred restaurants in Australia now are going to be in South Australia, and that's going to be a really big deal.

There's various opinions and research about whether it actually does cause a lift in tourism, because that's what we're talking about here.

Taliban branding.

It's not destination or, like, tourism Australia or, like-

[laughs]

And plus, I've been critical of them on my social.

Hmm.

But took out old content, and then just switched to...

And then the boom, like, I had gone to my first t- big tourism, international tourism trip was with Tourism Australia in 2019.

Hmm.

So what we had to do is then go and find additional support to get the budget that we could bring Revolver and Kim and all the right pieces together.

And Michael and I actually went around starting to find like-minded brands that might be interested in collaborating and We spoke to a number and Tourism Australia stepped up.

And without that additional budget, we couldn't have pulled that off.

So all those things being in place, we had obviously some great people around the table.

And at Kantar, I got to expand globally, if you like.

So I would travel around the world and on behalf of Tourism Australia and go to places like Dubai and Abu Dhabi and interview and research local travellers and try and figure out what's going to get them to come to Australia.

So again, fascinating.

I'd work on things, on projects like for Emirates where I would have to study the Indian business traveler for Emirates and go over there and present.

And this is before COVID.

My business was helping large brands.

So I had big travel brands, you know, Carnival Cruises, Princess Cruises, Tourism Australia, all the government bodies, all the states bought my research.

It was specifically designed at marketing to baby boomers, people over 50 in general back then.