Tourism ads bury Melbourne beneath reef and rock
Melbourne's cultural assets and lifestyle barely appear in national advertising that defaults to outback, kangaroos and Sydney icons.
When thousands of Americans arrived in Melbourne for the NFL in recent weeks, many were surprised by what they found. Tourism Australia's latest campaign features the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru, Margaret River wineries and Sydney Harbour.
Melbourne gets only a few seconds of the Great Ocean Road. Sports magnate Eddie McGuire says the pitch to international visitors is decades out of date.
Eddie McGuire told The Age that Americans who came for the NFL said things like "Wow, Melbourne's a great city" and one even discovered John Farnham. Committee for Melbourne's acting chief executive Agostino Giramondo said he was stunned when his relatives in Italy could only describe Australia as "a reef, a rock and a harbour".
Agostino Giramondo wants Tourism Australia to highlight Melbourne's food scene, coffee culture and laneways instead.
- Unknown to most American arrivals
- Distance to MCG from overseas
- A reef, a rock and a harbour
- What Giramondo's Italian relatives knew
- 30 years
- Years campaign strategy is outdated
Why it mattersWhat tourists see in ads shapes where they spend money and how long they stay. A more balanced picture could bring more visitors to Melbourne and spread tourism spending beyond Sydney.
Corroborated bytheage.com.au·watoday.com.au
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