Tourists - WHY go to AUSTRALIA
Written: Nov 08 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: open space, friendly
Cons: nil
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| SMITHSWOODSIDE's Full Review: Australia |
Review Topic: Overview
Now, lets make no bones about it, Australia wants and needs tourists. Tourism is a major part of the economy and therefore tourists from all over the world are welcome. Personally, I consider it important that any prospective tourist has some reasonable idea of just what they are letting themselves in for. To that end, this review is an overall snapshot of Australia with some comparisons with the USA.
Now comparing countries is not all that easy, but I have been to the West Coast of the U.S.A. and the best comparative source of information I have seen is the C.I.A. site on the Internet.
A few fast facts - Australia first listed; (converted approx. to miles)
Area: total: 4,600,000 sq miles slightly smaller than the US
Coastline: 18,000 miles - USA Land boundaries: 7,200 Coastline: 12,000 miles
Population: 19,169,083 Population USA: 275,562,673
Life expectancy at birth: total population: 79.75 years USA 77.12 years
Literacy: total population: 100% USA 97%
Economy - overview: Both countries have a prosperous Western-style capitalist economy, with a per capita GDP at the level of the four dominant West European economies.
We can see from this that both countries have a high standard of living, in fact two of the top four in the world. Land size is very similar, the one major difference being population.
Now if both countries are similar on paper, what is the point of spending our hard earned vacation dollars on a trip downunder, or in our case up over?
Well, statistical comparisons are one thing, reality quite another. For a start the people speak very differently, and even Death Valley is only a small area compared to the deserts in Australia. Death Valley has many similarities with the Outback, but I doubt it would be much, if any bigger than many "Cattle Stations", our name for half million to a million acre farms or ranches.
As the statistics show, there are fourteen times as many people in the USA in almost the same area. The last U.S. tourists I met, only two weeks ago, kept referring to this. They said it was difficult to comprehend just what a difference that made. I have heard this comment many times before, even from those who only visit our relatively crowded east coast.
Although many don't agree with me, I maintain that visiting cities in either country is time better spent seeing other things, say in Australia the Outback and in the U.S. for instance Yosemite or the central areas. Sure the cities have some differences - what city doesn't- but essentially they are all similar.
I would strongly encourage any overseas tourist to "do the east coast dance", which is by far the most visited area of the country. This is because there is a great deal to see, and by Australian standards close together.
Cairns is probably the best place to start. It is a small city, maybe 100,000 and has an International Airport. It is a tropical area, the most famous feature being the Great Barrier Reef and is located two thirds of the way up the State of Queensland coast, 1,100 miles north of the Capital Brisbane.
After viewing the delights of the Barrier Reef most fly to Brisbane in view of the distance, although driving is much better. Brisbane is sub-tropical with a population of 1.5 million. Just to the south is the Gold Coast, pretty much Australia's Las Vegas. About half a million locals serve innumerable tourists at Disneyland type attractions and Casinos.
Next stop is Sydney, 1,000 miles south with its famous harbour and a great many other attractions. It is Australia's largest and oldest city, with a population in excess of four million. It has even been known to host little get togethers like the Olympic Games.
From Sydney most go on to Melbourne, our second largest city with a population approaching 3.5 million. Melbourne was the original Capital of Australia before Canberra was built around the 1940's and hosted the 1956 Olympic Games.
Melbourne has much to see and ideally a tourist would continue their trip but most fly back to Los Angeles from here.
While that part of the country is certainly important to see, it is but a tiny bit of what is on offer. Those that are able keep going from Melbourne and make the short trip of 600 miles to my home town of 1.2 million, Adelaide, will not be disappointed. There is a great deal to see and do and it is worth seeing the difference of the first planned city in the world. Before a single building was built the whole city was designed in squares with wide streets. (Canberra is the last planned city- being set up in circles: well worth a look also)
Adelaide is the gateway to the Outback and that will be the subject of a soon to be published review.
Hopefully this little snapshot will begin to put the two countries in perspective.
Recommended:
Yes
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Member: Peter Smith
Location: South Australia
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