Australian soap to target Japanese tourists

Date: 2007 June 27 04:49

Posted by Joe

BBC News are currently running a story about a new Australian soap opera that is set to target a Japanese audience. With Yoshino Kimura getting the main billing, the soap is going to focus on a group of Japanese students living near the sunny beaches of Queensland. The idea is basically to create a 30 minute long advert to why it's good to go to Australia. The article draws parallels to the success of Neighbours in the UK and the effect it had to increasing the amount of British tourists to Australia.

The article states that Japanese tourism is worth A$1.98bn ($1.68bn USD) to the Australian economy each year, with 624,000 visitors annually.

Personally I've travelled to Queensland, and I'd rather the Australian government don't promote themselves, as I would prefer that places like Noosa were kept a secret. ^_-