Tim sinks boot in and hotfoots it to Victoria

With Tim Fischer hanging up his boots as Chairman of Tourism Australia, the Gold Coast Bulleting says that Mr Fischer has sunk the boot into the Gold Coast one last time, showing his organisation’s entrenched dislike of the holiday capital.

The former deputy prime minister’s term as chairman officially ends on June 30 and his dig came yesterday as he offered some final advice to the tourism industry.

In an obvious shot at the Gold Coast, Mr Fischer suggested the tropical far north coast of NSW should be renamed the ‘Byron Bold Coast’, with ‘bold’ standing for ‘balance over licentious development’.

Adding further proof that federal tourism bosses are out of touch, Mr Fischer again stood behind his failed ‘So Where The Bloody Hell Are You?’ campaign, even suggesting it be made more cumbersome and embarrassing.

“Firstly, Tourism Australia needs to stay with the ‘So Where The Bloody Hell Are You?’ campaign and it will,” he said.

He then added that there would, in due course, be a refreshening of the theme with tag lines such as ‘So where the bloody hell are you — awesome Australia.’

Mr Fischer described his three-year term as chairman of Tourism Australia as ‘challenging but enjoyable’.

He will now lead a six-month review of the Victorian rail freight network.

His departure to ‘Mexico’ is welcome news for the Gold Coast — the subject of a series of snubs while he held the reins at Tourism Australia.

Just this month, TA left both Indy and the Magic Millions off its annual list of major events, despite the combined attractions drawing an estimated 500,000 people and contributing $150 million to the economy.

That blunder was compounded by TA’s decision to leave southeast Queensland off its hi-tech map of Outback Australia, which greets international tourism operators at this year’s Australian Tourism Exchange.

Adding insult to injury, TA’s controversial ‘Where The Bloody Hell Are You?’ overseas advertising campaign did not include a single image of the Gold Coast, Australia’s top tourist destination.

Despite the campaign failing to hit the mark, the Government insisted on pressing ahead with it in the UK, after pulling the ads off the air in Japan because the Japanese had no idea what they meant.

That expensive flop followed a similar drab campaign, costing $120 million, titled ‘See Australia in a Different Light’, which sank without a trace.

Yesterday, Mr Fischer called for a rethink of ‘tired old placenames’ such as Industrial Drive, the main road between Newcastle and its airport, which he suggested should be renamed Mark Twain Drive in recognition of an 1895 visit by the American writer.

Mr Fischer said another idea was to jazz up some of the nation’s museums.  “For example, as we rapidly approach the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Hamel, where Australian and US troops were brilliantly led by General John Monash, of Jerilderie, surely Monash deserves more than one portrait and one caption in the western front gallery of the Australian War Memorial (in Canberra)?” he said.

He also wants all tourism industry stakeholders to defend aviation against ‘unfair attacks’ over carbon emissions. “Aviation contributes to only 2 per cent of carbon emissions worldwide — automotives (produce) 18 per cent by comparison,” he said.

Finally, he suggested the GST exemption given to international inbound tourists for domestic air travel should also extend to domestic rail travel.

Report by The Mole and The Gold Coast Bulletin