Destination: Australia & Pacific
Travel Headline of the Day: ‘Australian Backpackers Biggest Sperm Donors’
by Michael Yessis | 11.14.08 | 11:06 AM ET
Now we know how a lot of male Aussies fund their travels. They apparently donate their sperm while passing through London. A spokesperson from one clinic in the city told the Daily Telegraph, “What you get with the ‘grand tour’ is very enterprising people who look at every single way of making a buck.” (via Jaunted)
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Yahoo! BuzzAustralia Named Top Country Brand for 2008
by Michael Yessis | 11.11.08 | 11:01 AM ET
Canada finished second and the United States placed third in FutureBrand’s fourth annual Country Brand Index Survey. Rina Plapler, the lead author of the study, explains her interest in country branding in an interview: “I’ve studied global culture and comparative religion and lived in North America, Europe and Africa,” she says. “I’ve been amazed how different the experience of visiting and living in a country is from one’s perceptions.”
If Only It Were Raining Men: ‘Man-Drought’ Hits New Zealand
by Valerie Conners | 10.29.08 | 10:43 AM ET
Forget the Maori culture. Tourism New Zealand has launched an unusual campaign promoting the nation’s “man drought” as the perfect reason for guys to pay a visit. In what’s begun to sound more like a desperate plea for a date than an ad campaign, the tourism board released a press release stating, “It has been revealed that the women of New Zealand have a far more difficult job than Brits when it comes to finding Mr. Right.”
Air New Zealand Introduces Cutting-Edge Messaging Plan
by Eva Holland | 10.15.08 | 10:38 AM ET
Air New Zealand has unveiled an unusual plan to let airport visitors know about its new, faster check-in system: “Cranial billboards.” They’ll be hiring 50 people to shave their heads, have messages about the new check-in procedures temporarily tattooed on their bare scalps and then loiter around the airport in view of passersby.
Video: Baz Luhrmann’s New Australia Tourism Commercial
by Jim Benning | 10.09.08 | 1:31 PM ET
Tourism Australia’s new advertising campaign includes a TV commercial directed by Baz Luhrmann. It features career-obsessed city-dwellers who find renewal during a visit to Australia, and it apparently echoes themes in Luhrmann’s forthcoming movie, “Australia,” starring Nicole Kidman. Here’s the ad, which is bound to go down easier than the country’s controversial “Where the bloody hell are you?” campaign:
Forget About Having a ‘G’Day, Mite’
by Valerie Conners | 10.06.08 | 2:57 PM ET
Hold on to your memories of Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin—recent research shows that the familiar Australian accent will soon disappear as “the nation shakes loose its colonial roots and moves towards a standard national pronunciation.” According to Australian lexicographer Bruce Moore, words like “mate” will no longer be pronounced “mite” as typical characteristics of Australian speech disappear.
Video: Award-Winning Film Shot in New York and Sydney—on a Cellphone
by Michael Yessis | 10.02.08 | 4:52 PM ET
Jason van Genderen’s “Mankind is no Island” won the top prize at the Tropfest NY short film festival last week with a street-level look at both cities. The film (see below) reminded me of sections of Helvetica—and opened my eyes again to the artistic possibilities of the cellphone, just like this film.
The Best (Almost) Fictional British Pubs
by Michael Yessis | 09.30.08 | 2:41 PM ET
Among David Barnett’s picks for great fictional pubs: George Orwell’s The Moon Under Water and Anthony Burgess’ Korova Milk Bar, from A Clockwork Orange. Though they’re products of the authors’ imaginations, it looks like they’re so good they’ve both spawned real-world pubs. In his Guardian piece, Barnett mentions a series of British pubs named The Moon Under Water. I found another in St. Petersburg, Florida.
You Mean I’m in Sydney, Canada—not Sydney, Australia?
by Jim Benning | 09.25.08 | 1:18 PM ET
Due to “inattention while booking flights online,” an Argentine tourist this week found herself on vacation in Sydney, Nova Scotia, not her intended destination, Sydney, Australia. She realized the mistake in Halifax, on the final leg of her trip to, uh, Sydney. Here’s the best part: According to the Sydney Morning Herald, “rather than make a fuss, Ms Torres decided to stay and make the best of her trip.”
Audio Slideshow: Aboriginal Australia
by Jim Benning | 09.18.08 | 12:34 PM ET
The Sydney Morning Herald has put together a powerful slideshow narrated by photographer John Ogden.
AirAsia X Says Weighing Passengers May ‘Help Aussies Lose Weight’
by Michael Yessis | 08.04.08 | 11:21 AM ET
It’s not a Derrie-Air-style joke. AirAsia X apparently is “considering charging passengers depending on their weight in a bid to fight rising fuel prices and to ‘help Aussies lose weight’,” according to News.com.au.
Would You Eat Khao Pad at ‘Thai Foon’?
by Joanna Kakissis | 06.19.08 | 2:43 PM ET
Sounds like Sydney has practically devoted itself to laugh-tracking Southeast Asia’s most exquisite cuisine, with restaurant names like Thai Me Up, Thai Dye, Bow Thai and (my personal favorite) Thai Tanic. But the love of puns in eatery names is limited to neither Thai food (try Ewe ‘n’ Me and Planet of the Crepes) nor Australia’s largest city, writes The Sydney Morning Herald’s Samantha Selinger-Morris.
Aboriginal Musician Rocks iTunes
by Joanna Kakissis | 04.30.08 | 12:36 PM ET
Australians are snapping up new music from Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, an Aborginal musician who sings some of his songs in his native language, Yolngu. According to the International Herald Tribune, his first solo album, “Gurrumul,” released earlier this year, “jumped to No. 1 on the iTunes Australia roots music chart (it is currently No. 3)” and “is running strong in the mainstream iTunes music chart, above such international heavy hitters as Mariah Carey.” His MySpace page touts it as “One of the most important and beautiful Indigenous albums yet recorded.” Here’s a video clip from a recent show:
‘Long-Neck Women’ Fight Against Confinement in ‘Human Zoos’
by Michael Yessis | 04.22.08 | 11:20 AM ET
Marie Claire, The Age and the Times UK are among the publications with recent stories about the plight of the “long-neck women,” a group of Kayan refugees from Burma who are known for wearing brass coils around their necks. Tourists from around the world flock to Northern Thailand to see them, but many of the long-neck women have apparently had enough of living in a “human zoo.” Several of the women have removed their coils and are fighting to move to New Zealand and Finland, where they have been offered resettlement.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has taken up their cause, but so far no exit visas have materialized. The stories allege that the Thai government refuses to let the women leave, fearing that their departure will hurt tourism in the region.
Travel Headline of the Day: ‘Koala Biscuits to Lure German Tourists’
by Michael Yessis | 03.25.08 | 3:37 PM ET
It tops a story in the Sydney Morning Herald, which begins: “German supermarket shelves have been stocked with koala-shaped biscuits in a bid to lure more big-spending German tourists to Queensland.” Guess this campaign didn’t grab enough big-spending German koala lovers.