Still call Australia home
SYDNEY, 6 February 2012: Qantas chief Alan Joyce on Monday warned the airline would be forced to slash services and expressed “grave fears” for its future if proposed laws strengthening its ties to Australia went ahead.
Joyce said a bill, which would force Qantas to keep its headquarters and the majority of maintenance, flight operations and training in Australia, posed a “major threat” to the airline’s business and to jobs.
“If Australians want a truly competitive national carrier, this parliament cannot tie up Qantas in this way,” Joyce told a Senate hearing into the proposal. Read more
Aussie dollar fuels travel boom
SYDNEY, 8 August 2011 – The number of Australians travelling overseas jumped 10 % in the past year, with official figures showing outbound trips booming as the local currency soars.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures recorded Australians went on 7.44 million short-term overseas visits over the 2010 to 2011 fiscal year as the Aussie dollar hit historic highs — an increase of 9.9 % on 2009 to 2010.
A strong Australian dollar, however, makes the country more expensive for foreign tourists visiting Australia and reduces any competitive edge the country might enjoy with other destinations in the Asia Pacific. Read more
Tourism veteran departs Tourism Australia
SYDNEY, 4 February 2011 — Tourism Australia announced Friday the departure of veteran executive, Richard Beere, who leaves the agency after 20 years.
His departure is part of a wider restructuring at Tourism Australia to “align itself to the 2020 Tourism Industry Potential launched last November at the Directions Conference in Canberra.”
Departmental restructuring makes Mr Beere’s post redundant. As the agency’s executive general manager eastern, he heads a division concentrating on Asia Pacific markets, which is about to be merged into a single unit covering worldwide marketing.
Tourism Australia’s international operations, divided into two sectors East and West, will be renamed Marketing Operations and be headed by Frances Anne Keeler, who up until now has held the post of executive general manager western.
Floods hit Aussie tourism
BRISBANE, 17 January 2011- Brisbane is a travel hub for tourists and the gateway to the pristine beaches, rugged outback, tropical rainforests and Great Barrier Reef of Australia’s famed ‘Sunshine State’.
But the floodwaters that surged through the city last week, depositing tons of putrid mud and debris, have shut down Brisbane’s arts precinct, closed cafes, damaged hotels and scarred the image of tourist friendly Queensland.
“We depend on backpackers, yes, they are scared, they don’t want to go to Fraser Island or the Whitsundays, or the Gold Coast, they are afraid of being stuck on the road,” explains Lindsey Frazer of backpacker specialist Wicked Travel.
Floods cost to Australia ‘higher than Katrina’
January 12, 2011 by AFP
Filed under Destinations, News, Pacific
SYDNEY, 12 January 2011 – Australia’s devastating floods could slice more than Aus$10 billion (US$10 billion) off GDP and hammer the economy worse than Hurricane Katrina affected the United States, economists said Wednesday.
US officials said in 2005 that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that year caused $70-$130 billion in property damage and would have a sharp but short-lived impact on the overall economy.
The difference in Queensland was serious losses in mining and farming production, as well as tourism in a state which is home to the famous Great Barrier Reef and pristine beaches.
China plans $1.3bn ‘seven-star hotel’
January 11, 2011 by AFP
Filed under Hospitality, News
BEIJING, 11 January 2011 – Beijing authorities plan to build a “seven-star hotel” modelled after Dubai’s Burj Khalifa — the world’s tallest building — in a US$1.3 billion joint project with Saudi Arabia.
The hotel will be erected in western Beijing’s Mentougou district some 30 km from the Chinese capital’s centre, the state-run Beijing Morning Post said last week, quoting a local parliamentary meeting.
A district official, who declined to give his name, confirmed the project and its price tag in comments to AFP on Friday.
Australian floods hurt economy
SYDNEY, 4 January 2011 – Massive floods washing through northeast Australia, wiping out crops and swamping coal mines, are pushing up commodity prices and could shave national growth figures, economists said Tuesday.
The flood disaster in Queensland state, which supplies half the world’s coking coal used for steel manufacture, has brought major mining operations to a standstill amid warnings it could be months before full production resumes.
Biggest mouth on earth
SYDNEY, 15 December 2010 – US talk-show legend Oprah Winfrey Tuesday named herself Australia’s new global ambassador, saying her much-touted visit Down Under would reap huge rewards for the country’s image and tourism coffers.
Winfrey, recording episodes outside the United States for the first time in her show’s 24-year history, said her visit with more than 300 US audience members would mean massive publicity for the huge nation.
Australia pays US$2.3m for Oprah show
SYDNEY, 7 December 2010 – Oprah Winfrey’s ecstatic audience arrived in Sydney Tuesday for their much-hyped tour Down Under with the talk show queen, kicking off a week-long showcase of Australia’s beaches, cities and wildlife.
Australia paid US$2.3 million to lure Winfrey, ranked the world’s most powerful celebrity by Forbes magazine this year ahead of actress Angelina Jolie and singer Beyonce Knowles.
QF sore over A380 payload restriction
SYDNEY, 7 December 2010 – Australia’s Qantas on Saturday said new rules imposed after an A380 engine blast meant the 470-seat superjumbo could carry just 80 passengers to Los Angeles and was “un-commercial” on the key route.
The regulations, which direct lower engine thrust, made the A380 commercially unsuitable for the trans-Pacific trip, according to legal documents filed in the carrier’s case against engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce.
