Royals Visit Australia: Princess Mary to Pay Official Visit to Melbourne & Sydney

Denmark's Crown Princess Mary will attend two Alannah and Madeline Foundation events in Melbourne as part of her official visit to Australia in November.

Tasmanian-born Princess Mary and her husband, Crown Prince Frederik, will attend a lunch supporting the foundation's eSmart cybersafe program and its Starry Starry Night gala ball.

Princess Mary is the international patron of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, a charity aimed at protecting children from violence.

The November 26 events will fill the last day of the royal couple's week-long official Australian visit.

Royals Visit Australia: Princess Mary to Pay Official Visit to Melbourne & Sydney

Tourism Boost, or Just a Phantom of the Oprah?

OPRAH Winfrey's imprimatur has launched careers, spawned business empires and raised millions of dollars for charity, but the ''Oprah effect'' has not revived Australia's flagging tourism industry in the US.

The number of visiting Americans continues to fall, despite claims from Tourism Australia that the talk show star's tour last year was worth $360 million in global publicity. The Sunday Age can also reveal that Tourism Australia's chief, Andrew McEvoy, gave a reporter incorrect US arrival figures for May, which he claimed was the first sign of the campaign's success.

Industry experts are questioning the $5 million taxpayer-funded tour, with some saying the money should have been spent on the booming Chinese market.

US arrivals for the first five months of 2011 fell by 0.8 per cent, compared with the same period last year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The dip was even more pronounced in Britain and Canada, where Winfrey's Ultimate Australian Adventure also aired in January.

Canadian arrivals from January to May 2011 fell by 5.1 per cent year on year, while British arrivals dropped by 4.6 per cent.

Mr McEvoy was contradicted by bureau figures for May, which revealed US arrivals had fallen by 2.1 per cent. He had told The Australian newspaper that the number of American travellers had jumped by 4 per cent in May.

''Visitor numbers for May are up about 4 per cent out of the US and that's really the first indication,'' he said. The Winfrey impact ''comes from now'', he said.

A spokesman for Mr McEvoy blamed the error on a ''slip of the tongue'', but later said the reporter could have mistakenly used US arrival figures from April.

''I tried to discourage her from making too much of one month of arrivals figures,'' said Tourism Australia media manager Leo Seaton. ''But she led with it, and made it sound as if Andrew was talking it all up, which he wasn't.''

Tourism Victoria distanced itself from the strategy, saying the decision to finance it was made by the former state government. Several other state-based tourism groups are seething about the attention given to NSW and Queensland by Winfrey and her entourage of 300 guests.

Western Australia is believed to have hosted two of Winfrey's ''ultimate fans''. South Australia and Tasmania received 16 and six respectively.

''It reinforced the old stereotype of tropical beaches, koalas and the Harbour Bridge,'' said one state tourism executive, who asked not to be named. ''Isn't it time we came up with something a bit more sophisticated?'' Mr McEvoy told The Sunday Age he was confident Winfrey's global reach would deliver long-term returns for Australia, but said the impact had been delayed by the still ailing US economy.

''As we've said all along, the 'Oprah effect' was never going to be an instant phenomenon, and we believe the full impact will be seen over many years to come,'' he said.

But Tourism Australia's assessment was far more upbeat during Winfrey's trip and in the aftermath of the four-part series that screened in 145 countries earlier this year. Mr McEvoy said in March: ''This has hit the right spot … We haven't opened the champagne - I have looked at the bottle and maybe in the next few months we'll crack it.''

Tony Charters, convener of the Tourism and Events Excellence Conference to be held in Melbourne in September, said the industry needed a ''comprehensive reboot''.

''While the US and Europe will always be important, we need to fundamentally change the way we approach markets in China and south-east Asia,'' he said.

Winfrey's Harpo Productions did not respond to questions from The Sunday Age.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/tourism-boost-or-just-a-phantom-of-the-oprah-20110716-1hjbh.html#ixzz1SPx58zq3

FREE Sydney City Bus Route "555"

The CBD shuttle (Route 555) will get you around the City for shopping, business or to connect with other transport.

It's frequent and it's free. The shuttle operates every 10 minutes in both directions between 9.30am and 3.30pm on weekdays (until 9pm on Thursday nights) and between 9.30am and 6pm on weekends.

The CBD shuttle connects with rail, bus, metrobus, ferries, light rail and the monorail. a free shuttle service which travels in a very convenient circle around the city, both ways, and stops at all the places you would want to visit.

You can hop on, hop off at the Town Hall, the Queen Victoria Centre, Centrepoint Tower, Martin Place, Circular Quay, (a very short and interesting walk to the Opera House past numerous eateries and entertainment or The Rocks, with its historic buildings, and Harbour Bridge), the Domain, Hyde Park, Central Station, Chinatown and points in between.

The exact route runs along George Street, down around Circular Quay, up Phillip Street and then Macquarie Street, Eddy Avenue past Central Station to run along George Street and back to Circular Quay.

The CBD Free Shuttle service makes staying at Sydney City Edge B&B very convenient.

Oprah's Australia Visit May Well to Pay Off

It looks as though the Oprah effect is beginning to be felt by Australia's tourism industry.

Tourism Australia (TA) boss Andrew McEvoy says while it's a bit early to start popping the champagne corks, new research and feedback from the industry suggests US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey's foray down under in December is starting to pay dividends.

Mr McEvoy, who is attending the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE) in Sydney this week, said online travel agency Orbitz, a key partner in TA's Great Aussie Sale promotion which ran in the United States alongside the Oprah show's airing, has reported an increase in bookings.

Advertisement: Story continues below "Orbitz figures for January and February 2011 compared with the same period last year, revealed that revenue from flight and hotel

bookings has risen 9.65 per cent and 13.6 per cent respectively," he said in a daily online newsletter to ATE delegates.

"Separately a consumer research poll of 1200 Americans, 1000 Oprah viewers and 200 non Oprah viewers, revealed 61 per cent of respondents who were aware of Oprah's Australian shows had already explored travel options to Australia.

"And 74 per cent of those who were aware of the shows agreed that Australia is worth travelling to."

Other commercial partners involved in campaign activity around the shows have also reported spikes in holiday bookings.

Mr McEvoy said Flight Centre/Liberty Travel had seen flight bookings so far in 2011 increase by 108 per cent compared with 2010.

US boutique travel group, Signature Travel, has reported a 52 per cent increase in Australian bookings for February 2011 compared with last year, while visits to TA's website, www.australia.com during January and February were nearly double the monthly average.

"The four Oprah shows began re-airing in the US from March 24, kick-starting another big marketing push by Tourism Australia, including phase two of the Great Aussie Sale as well as airline partnerships with V Australia and Delta.

"Since its announcement in September 2010, Oprah's visit to Australia has generated more than 86,000 media articles across the world, with an estimated equivalent advertising value of $368 million," he said.

Tourism Australia believes the US market has the potential to grow to between 760,000 and 840,000 visitors, contributing between $4.5 billion and $5.5 billion in overnight expenditure by 2020

Around 700 international travel delegates from 40 countries are meeting with 1700 tourism operators from across the country at the ATE in Sydney this week.

"ATE is the most important event on the Australian tourism industry calendar, and we estimate it will immediately inject more than $10 million into the local economy, but many millions more longer term," Mr McEvoy said.

Taronga Welcomes Tiny, Orange Leaf-Eating Monkey Infant

Taronga is the only zoo in Australasia to care for this highly endangered south-east Asian monkey, but is working with other zoos globally to help ensure a future for this species.Taronga Zoo has welcomed the birth of an endangered, bright orange Francois Leaf- monkey, the first to be raised by its mother in Australia.
The male infant was born to mother, ‘Saigon’, and father, ‘Hanoi’, and discovered cradled in its mother’s arms in the early morning of 31 January by zoo keepers who had been monitoring the pregnancy.

Taronga Zoo Primate Keeper, Roxanne Pellatt, said: “Obviously we were all very relieved when we discovered Keo-co cradled in Saigon’s arms. He had been licked clean, was warm, alert and the two adult females began sharing the role of caring for him. This is exactly what we hoped to see as this birth is particularly significant.”

“The youngster is the first Francois Leaf-eating Monkey to be raised by its mother along with another adult female ‘Meili’ in our harem group. Unlike us humans who pretty much have the solo task of raising our babies, these monkeys share mothering duties with other females in their group.”

“Consequently, we have named the infant ‘Keo-co’ (pronounced key-co) which is a traditional game of tug-of-war played in the villages of Vietnam. We noticed in the early days of his life ‘Saigon’ and ‘Meili’ were quite competitive as to who spent the most amount of time caring for the newborn,” said Roxanne.
Meili arrived from Beijing last year to help create the natural harem social structure of this monkey species. It wasn’t long afterwards that Saigon fell pregnant to the resident male, ‘Hanoi’.

Importantly, Meili has had offspring before and has proven to be a very good mother, whereas Saigon has had a few false starts to motherhood. ”We really wanted Saigon to raise the infant herself and were hoping Meili would teach Saigon a thing or two about motherhood.”

Roxanne said: “One of Saigon’s infants failed to thrive and her first offspring ‘Elke’, a female, had to be hand-reared by keepers when Saigon seemed confused by the bright orange arrival which is a common response for a first-time mother. Elke now lives with another male Leaf-monkey, ‘Bobo’ and is about to celebrate her second birthday.”

Keo-co has begun to explore the outside exhibit sticking close to the adult females, but is also very curious, confident and playful.

Now that the monkeys are spending longer outside in their tropically-themed exhibit, visitors to Taronga’s Rainforest Trail will be amongst the first in Australia to see an adult Francois Leaf-monkey leaping through the forest with a vibrantly coloured infant.

The birth could not have come at a better time with researchers recently discovering that despite once being widespread throughout Vietnam and China, there could be as few as 1000 Leaf-eating Monkeys left in the wild due to habitat loss and poaching. 

Taronga is the only zoo in Australasia to care for this highly endangered south-east Asian monkey, but is working with other zoos globally to help ensure a future for this species.
(Source: TravMedia.com March 2011)

Luna Park celebrates 75 years - Sydney Tourism News

Luna Park, Sydney’s iconic amusement Park, has announced a line up of activities to celebrate its 75th anniversary to take place during the Spring School Holidays (Sept 25th – Oct 10th). To celebrate 75 years of history and fun, Luna Park have launched a ballot on www.lunaparksydney.com and is inviting Australians to register online for their chance to win limited tickets to the Park’s celebrations, including, a John Farnham concert, live in the Big Top and free rides all day on Luna Park’s 4th October birthday. Everyone who registers online will also receive a $15 off voucher for any Unlimited Rides Pass purchased throughout the Spring School Holidays.