Oprah Winfrey, the highest rating talkshow host in America, is bringing her show Down Under.
She’s scheduled shows at the Sydney Opera House and will take her 450-strong audience and crew to Cairns as well.
Annabelle Carter reports.
TRANSCRIPT
Oprah is coming.
Premier Anna Bligh announced today the talkshow queen will visit Queensland when she comes to Australia later this year.
Anna Bligh, Qld Premier: “Her enormous influence and reach across the globe is a great shot in the arm to our tourism industry.”
Part of a Tourism Queensland and Tourism Australia initiative, Ms Winfrey will film part of her Australian holiday special in Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef.
With 40 million viewers in the United States and more than 3o million across the globe the visit is being hailed as a blessing for Queensland tourism.
Wendy Harch, Tourism Qld: “The fact that you know she just needs to mention Australia and suddenly everyone is talking about Australia and Googling Australia is fantastic for us.”
So far, the New South Wales government has contributed $1million dollars to her visit, with the Australian government pitching in another $1.5 million.
The Queensland Government also will contribute but is yet to reveal exactly how much.
John Brown, Former Federal Tourism Minister: “There’s no way in the world that you could pay for the publicity we’ll get out of this.”
The last big initiative to promote the sunshine state was the “Best Job in the World” last year.
Queensland Tourism generated over $400 million in profit from the “best job in the world” promotion. Mr Lawlor hopes Oprah’s visit will trump that.
Peter Lawlor, Qld tourism Minister: “Well hopefully this will be even bigger, but it’ll have to be good to beat the world’s greatest job.”
The show is expected to air in Australia in January.
Annabelle Carter, QUT News.