The 5 Top Holiday Spots in Australia.

A newsletter I get called Hotel & Resort Insider has issue its list of top 5 holiday spots in Australia. I can quite believe that it is a hard job because, let’s face it, Australia has a heck of a lot going for it. Even if it does take 24 hours plus to get there.
But their top pick, and the list isn’t in alphabetical order so I assume its number 1, is Canberra. Now I forget who said that the best way to see Canberra is from the back of a departing train but I agree with the sentiments. It has changed a lot over the last forty years since I saw it for the first time but there are a lot better places to visit. Maybe it might make my top 100 but number 1. At 5pm when the government offices close, the place becomes a ghost town in parts. Its’s full of politicians and civil servants and who wants to mix with them in the evening. Compare that to parts of Sydney or Melbourne. The Blue Mountains, the tropical rainforests don’t get a mention. Nor does the Great Barrier Reef.
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the wonders of the world and they have completely overlooked it. This seventh wonder of the world (according to CNN) draws over 2 million tourists a year and generates about $A6 billion for the local economy.
So maybe the Australian Tourism Commission won’t read this piece in HRI. And thankfully, tourists won’t. They’ll still head for the best place in Oz, Sydney Harbour.

When attracting tourists messes things up

Last December the state government of NSW in Australia decided to launch Family Funday Sunday. The idea was to bring more people onto ferries and into the city. To do this it cut the price a family ticket to just $2.50 (about £1.20). The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Sunday was already the most crowded day of the week for ferry rides so guess what happened. The ferries, already busy, couldn’t cope whilst trains and buses had loads of capacity but no discounted offers.
It got so bad that the last RiverCat to Parramatta (about an hour’s journey) couldn’t carry the last 100 passengers so they were left to their own devices.
The obvious change seems to give discounts on trains and buses and forget discounting the ferries. (although getting on the best harbour in the world on a gorgeous day is very enticing)
Now in London, we have a pretty expensive underground, a pretty expensive bus service (compared to Cardiff, Edinburgh, Birmingham, New York, Boston, Paris and almost another hundred or so places you could name) but do we entice visitors with discounts at slack times? Not really, no we just have the equivalent of a cheap day return. And if you commute into London for a visit that gets expensive. From Guildford it is £15.90 with the tube/bus usage included. Last week I got a single to Leeds from Kings Cross for £11.50!
No chance of attracting too many tourists in the south east with our prices is there?