”The offer of big events, cultural events, retail, food and wine is considered more attractive than stuff like theme parks, Big Pineapples and gee-whizzy type of stuff,” Victorian Tourism Industry Council chief Anthony McIntosh says.
If we are going away in Australia we seem to be choosing Victoria more than Queensland. The article suggests we are over the theme park approach to life. We should probably look into it a bit more.
The Gold Coast is generally considered over developed and over stated these days. Northern New South Wales and over the boarder into Queensland are the popular parts to visit in that neck of the woods. people seem to want the countryside, the trees, hills, the Byron Bay experiences and the relaxed atmosphere. The tourist areas of Queensland are no longer relaxed because they are overdone. So people are happy to rent a holiday home and travel around a bit to see something authentic. Then there have been the articles and news of skin cancer and I daresay that would have an influence on sunny holidays. Victoria is well placed and well located. In the back of our minds would be the bush fires and how those people need our support. We lend support by just being there in Australia. We say nothing. The floods in Queensland have been awful too but that has scared us off a bit , I think. We don’t want to be caught in floods. So yes, the theme parks represent an unreal life and our life has been very real lately. That’s what we want . Something grounding. Victoria does that well because it has a lot of style and it’s less is more approach is calming and inviting. The Victorians are very welcoming and the city of Melbourne is just a great place to be. Victoria is now very much arts orientated and so lots of us go there for the exhibitions and then the shopping along the way. For me, in Adelaide, it is cheaper and quicker to get to Victoria than the haul up to Queensland and the factor in that is we have had problems with our domestic planes which we have never had, so it does put you off long haul flights. In the end, you need to look at what really has changed for us – we have grown older. Theme parks are for the young!
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