The tourism industry is hoping a new blockbuster, Australia, will stimulate holiday sales to the country. Joanna Booth reports
Set on the brink of the Second World War, the movie Australia sees an English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) team up with rough-hewn local (Hugh Jackman) to save the land she inherited.
Filmed throughout the Northern Territory, Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland, the film will showcase the country’s wild landscapes.
Tourism Australia is confident the film’s stunning cinematography will drive tourists into the outback.
Tourism Australia general manager UK/Europe Rodney Harrex said: “The movie offers a unique opportunity to showcase Australia’s striking natural beauty and character, helping to raise awareness of the amazing experiences you can enjoy in the Aussie outback.
“We will be working closely with travel industry partners to convert the desire to travel to Australia that the film creates into a serious intention to visit in the next 18 months.”
The rugged and varied Kimberley region in Western Australia provides dramatic backdrops with red soil and blue skies. Audiences will see the sandstone escarpments of the Cockburn Range and the striped, beehive-like mounds of the Bungle Bungle Range in World Heritage Site Purnululu National Park.
Visitors can stay in some of the locations where filming took place – the working cattle stations of El Questro and Home Valley. The latter reopened on July 1 after a multi-million pound renovation.
The film’s director Baz Luhrmann is even developing an international advertising campaign for Tourism Australia, which will run from October. He said: “The more we talked, the more I realised we had the same aims: to celebrate the unique and transformative power of this ancient and extraordinary country.”
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