Where do you think Oprah should visit?

So it's count down time to when Oprah herself will visit these lovely shores of Australia. So let’s see, what immediately springs to mind when you think of Australia? Hmmm lets see - Bondi Beach, Sydney Opera House, Great Barrier Reef, Uluru (Ayers Rock), Barbeques, Thongs (Flip Flops to everyone else out there!) and what else? Beer maybe?
Now for me, being an Australian and luckily enough, one who has travelled extensively in this country, when asked this question my mind springs to hot sunny days, four wheel driving along dirt tracks, weekends at the beach, ancient rainforests and ancient rock art, landscapes that go on forever and ever and ever and ever, feeling the breeze in your hair watching the sinking sun and taking a moment to realise that what you are seeing is real, and not a picture.

So, you may wonder why I started this little blog – well, having worked in tourism my entire career I have learnt that to really get into a destination, you need to dig a little deeper. You need to look beyond the brochure and find those experiences that can truly showcase the stories of the people and the land. Many of these little gems are small tourism operators who live in the destination. They have started their business as they are proud of where they live and have a genuine desire to share their home and history with visitors. But how do you find these places? Normally you need to sift through google (as they are small operators, if they do have a website I can assure you they don’t optimise their site nor pay the big dollars for search engine marketing) Or you can find travel companies who specialise in destinations that look after these small tourism operators.

For example; I grew up on a sheep farm in south west New South Wales. My dad is a farmer and we sell wool. Each year during our shearing season we would have at least one group of people from the USA who would visit the shed. They were interested in seeing a working shearing shed which can be viewed as an authentic Australian experience. There was no “tourism showcase” here at all and trust me as I was a 16 year old girl standing in my grubby farm clothes dying of embarrassment at the time.

The great thing is most regional tourism offices have the ability to build a website for their community and develop marketing plans to include all these great experiences allowing greater access for travellers. That’s what I do in my job now, only I specialised in a big chunk of Australia, that being the whole of the Northern Territory (useless but interesting fact:  Australia’s Northern Territory is six times the size of Great Britain, two and a half times the size of Texas). Yep…big, I know!

So, Oprah, I am going to give you some suggestions on where I think you and your audience can gain some insight into our beautiful land. I specialise in the outback but I know this is there is some great and different experiences in the other states in Australia also. I hope people from around Australia feel free to add on this blog suggestions of their special places that they think showcase their hometown. Oh, and Oprah, if you’re interested? My dad is shearing in December while you’re here, so feel free to pop in for a visit!