IT may have had a mixed reception at the box office, but Australia the movie could still prove to be a boon for Kimberley tourism.
IT may have had a mixed reception at the box office, but Australia the movie could still prove to be a boon for Kimberley tourism.
Tourism Australia launched a $40 million marketing campaign off the back of the movie, while Tourism WA launched its own $2.2 million campaign, in addition to its $500,000 contribution to ensure the film was partially shot in WA.
Discover West Holidays group managing director Nathan Harding said the company had invested significantly in the campaign and was already starting to see results just five months after it commenced.
Mr Harding said bookings for the Kimberley from November until now were up 21 per cent on the same period last year, with most coming from the east coast of Australia.
"The main part of the campaign came right at the peak of the global financial crisis around November-December when people thought the end of the world was nigh. Given all that, we think the campaign has been very successful," he said.
Mr Harding added that the overall mood in the Kimberley was mixed, with some business faring better than others.
"If it wasn't for Australia the movie and the campaign, the Kimberley would be suffering at the moment," he said. "Everyone is quite focused on leveraging the movie."
Kununurra Visitor Centre manager Narelle Brooke said the movie had sparked people's interest in visiting the region.
She said unique visitors to the centre's website for the three months to March were up between 35 and 50 per cent on the same time last year.
"International visitors to the site have been mainly Europeans, but we have seen a swing in the last few months with the US now number one, followed by the UK," Ms Brooke said.
"That could only be from the hype surrounding the movie and the activities that Tourism Australia and Tourism WA have been doing in America."
Ms Brooke said she received a flurry of international interest after Nicole Kidman claimed in a magazine interview that she fell pregnant while filming in Kununurra thanks to the region's 'fertility waters'.
"Early in the wet season last year had huge interest, people wanted to know where Nicole swan where she got pregnant. We usually get about 3,000 to 4,000 unique visitors to our site a month, and we got 12,000 just in September," she said.
"We couldn't have paid for that publicity."
Companies such as Slingair, Heliwork and Alligator Airways are conducting 'Australia the Movie' tours, flying tourists over the film's locations.
Aboriginal organisation MG Corp is hoping to re-build the film set of the Faraway Downs homestead closer to the Kununurra town site.
The group is currently working with a consultant to secure the funding needed for the project, estimated at about $1.5 million.
Kimberley Wild Expeditions manager James Weeding said the company had seen and improvement in bookings, including on its packages, which take visitors to some of the film's locations.
"We have had some booking the eight-day loop which takes you to the parts of the country where the film was shot, and they have expressed interest in seeing the places that relate to the movie," he said.
