Maroon 5 Announces Whirlwind Aussie Tour - Melbourne

Maroon 5 are returning to Australia for a whirlwind tour later this year.

The three time Grammy-winning band will play in Sydney and Melbourne in October for two exclusive shows, Mushroom Group Promotions announced on Sunday.

Joining Maroon 5 for the two shows will be Australia-based band Evermore and Las Vegas three-piece The Cab.

Maroon 5's popularity has grown since their last Australian tour thanks to lead singer Adam Levines' role on the American version of The Voice, alongside Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton and Cee Lo Green.

The band's latest hits include Payphone (featuring American rapper Wiz Khalifa) and Moves Like Jagger (featuring Aguilera), which saw the band nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and win the 2012 Peoples Choice Award for Favourite Band.

Tickets go on sale for Frontier Members on Wednesday, June 27. General public tickets go on sale on Tuesday the third of July, from 9am local time.

TOUR DATES

October 12 - Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne.

George Michael Symphonica Tour - Australia 2012

AFTER HIS 2010 SOLD OUT TOUR, GEORGE MICHAEL RETURNS TO AUSTRALIA AS YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN HIM BEFORE!

George Michael triumphantly returns to Australia in November and December 2012, with his Symphonica Tour

The multi-million selling artist is back in good health and fighting fit after a battle with pneumonia at the end of last year, which unfortunately led to his ‘Symphonica’ tour being postponed. George Michael is now preparing to return to the big stage later this year with rescheduled and newly added tour dates in Europe, the UK and Australia.

Before its unexpected hiatus, Symphonica, played to packed houses in Europe and fulfilled George's long-cherished artistic ambition of performing alongside a full orchestra. On the tour George will perform a carefully chosen selection of his own material spanning his remarkable career; and he will also cover some of his favourite songs from other artists.

On Symphonica, the music has been re-worked and re-arranged for a large scale orchestra, which will accompany George and his band throughout the tour. This brand new symphonic production has given each song added layers and fresh nuance. It's unmistakeably George Michael, but not as we've ever known him.

With an unparalleled voice, a large-scale orchestra and a tantalising promise to include songs never previously performed live, Symphonica is a magical experience awaiting singer and audience alike...

TOUR DATES*:

Wed 21 & 22 Nov - Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne

*Ticketek is selling for the above venues only.

The Beach Boys 50 - 2012 Tour Australia

Paul Dainty, Chairman of Dainty Group has announced that one of the worlds' most legendary and influential bands of all time The Beach Boys, will tour Australia this year as part of their 50th Anniversary Tour with dates confirmed in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

The 50th Anniversary Tour marks the first time in more than two decades that original members Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, and David Marks will tour together.

The 50th Anniversary Tour, which commenced in North America in April, is receiving critical acclaim and proving to be a historical concert event not to be missed.

For five decades, America's first pop band to reach the 50 year milestone has recorded and performed the music that has become the world's favorite soundtrack to summer. Founded in Hawthorne, California in 1961, The Beach Boys were originally comprised of the three teenaged Wilson brothers: Brian, Carl and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love, and school friend Al Jardine. In 1962, neighbour David Marks joined the group for their first wave of hits with Capitol Records, leaving in late 1963, and in 1965, Bruce Johnston joined the band when Brian Wilson retired from touring to focus on writing and producing for the group.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and recipients of The Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement GRAMMY Award, The Beach Boys are an American institution that is iconic around the world.

TOUR DATES*:

Friday 31 August - Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne

*Ticketek is selling for the above venues only.

Sydney-Melbourne The World's Fifth Busiest Air Route

As you shuttle between Sydney and Melbourne on any given day, take comfort in knowing that you're among seven million people who make the same inter-city trek each year.

That's not only equivalent to one-third of Australia's population – it also puts the bustling Sydney-Melbourne corridor in the top five of the world's busiest airline routes.

And with just under four million passengers flying annually between Sydney and Brisbane, this upper leg of Australia's 'golden triangle' of travel slots into 12th place on the world ladder.

Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are among the world's busiest airline routes Image: Data by Amadeus, graphic by The Economist

According to travel technology and bookings company Amadeus, a South Korean domestic route between Seoul and Jeju – the largest volcanic island in South Korea, and a premium tourist destination –  is the world's busiest air traffic route in terms of volume, with some 9.9 million passengers in 2011.

Second on the list if is Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo sector, followed by two domestic Japanese routes (Tokyo-Osaka and Tokyo-Sapporo).

The USA doesn't even make the top 15: its three busiest routes tally around three million passengers each, winging their way between New York and Chicago, Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles.

It's also telling that the Asia Pacific region is home to eight out of the world’s 10 busiest inter-city air routes.

Amadeus also reports that the strongest growth in absolute passenger traffic is led by the BRIC countries. China registered an additional 19 million in 2011, Brazil, 12 million, India eight million and Russia six million. Indonesia was the fifth strongest growth market with an additional five million passengers.

To gain a very real sense of just how busy the skies above us are, check out this amazing video showing all commercial flights around the world in a 24 hour period, compressed into little more than one minute!

The video simulation was cooked up by boffins at the Zurich School of Applied Sciences using data drawn from FlightStats.




The flights appear like bee swarms as they head towards major destinations.
You can see air traffic peak, taper off and pick up again as day changes to night – watch for those flights racing the sun to hit an early morning arrival into Australia, the west coat of the USA and Europe.

(You'll also spot some flights seemingly travelling at warp-speed near the top of the map, most noticeably heading in from the right-hand side close to the 1.05 mark. While those aircraft appear to make the Concorde look like a Sopwith Camel, their speed is exaggerated because they're crossing the Arctic Circle – a 3D area that's distorted on this 2D map.)

Green Tape Chokes Our Tourism

A luxury hotel! Right inside a Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.

Of course, you might say. Who wants to stand in a hot forest the whole day, looking at trees?

Who wouldn't want to zip back after a couple of hours to grab that cocktail, jump in that pool, lounge on that sun deck or take that massage next to that passing wombat?

But note this. This ad campaign is the first in which Tourism Australia has featured not just our best bits of nature, but the luxury resorts right next to them, including spectacular ones at Kangaroo Island and Tasmania's Great Oyster Bay.

Not only that, the Blue Mountains resort is the one at Wolgan Valley that green groups fought and green tape almost strangled. A hotel in a national park? Sacrilege!

Which makes Tourism Australia's latest ad campaign, launched in Shanghai, not just a celebration of Australia, but one more sign of the decline of the anti-human green movement.

The Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa, which Test captain Michael Clarke booked out last month for his wedding, is the perfect example.

Emirates announced in 2005 it wanted to build this $125 million extravaganza, yet had to work for two more years just to get its plans through all the green tape, including approvals from the then Howard government, the local shire, the NSW Land and Environment Court and the NSW Labor government.

It's a familiar story for any big developer. For years now, it's seemed a sin to green preachers to have man's footprint anywhere near nature.

This absurd fear of human contamination has closed a uranium mine in Kakadu, banned oil exploration around the Barrier Reef, halted coal mines in Queensland, delayed housing developments in even the most barren scrub and now threatens a planned $30 billion gas hub project on James Price Point an empty scrap of the vast Kimberley.

Even a humble $50 million expansion of the Yaringa Boat Harbour on the Mornington Peninsula was held up for a year by green bureaucrats fretting over an orange-bellied parrot no one had actually seen there for a quarter of a century.

This anti-human paranoia has also led to attacks on tourism itself. Tourists are told not to climb Ayers Rock; recreational fishing has been severely restricted; horse riding in many national parks is limited or even banned; and where is the five-star resort on the Barrier Reef itself that tourists would cross the world to see?

It's like banning laughter in church. Victoria's magnificent Wilsons Prom is under such prudish management that you can't stay anywhere inside bar a camping site or some spartan eco-cabin.
The Wolgan Valley resort could have gone the same puritanical way. What an effort and expense Emirates had to go to just to get an official "yes" to a project that Tourism Australia now touts as one of our biggest tourism magnets.

It had to swap 114 hectares of bushland it had bought next to the park for 39ha of the park itself, with green groups screaming every inch of the way. It had to plant thousands of trees, modify its designs and agree to all kinds of restrictions. Even now, just four helicopter trips a week are allowed to ferry in guests.

Now come the Tourism Australia ads to explode the fallacy and extremism that tends to drive such anti-development campaigns.

No, man is not necessarily a pollution on the landscape. No, there's not much point in having great scenery if you make it too tough for people to see or enjoy.

These ads no longer trade on our beauty spots being remote and unsullied by human hands. After all, there's not a single national park that isn't improved by a good road to go see it.
So we see the beauty of the Great Oyster Bay through the windows of the Saffire Freycinet luxury lodge.

We look out over Kangaroo Island's beach from the great windows of the Southern Ocean Lodge. Uluru is seen from well laid dining tables at dusk, and a chopper is parked on top of a waterfall in the El Questro Wilderness Park, because who wants to hike in the heat?

In fact, the sole Victorian entry in the 12 destinations showcased is nothing designed by nature not the Great Ocean Road or the penguins of Phillip Island but Crown casino.

And Sydney closes the ads with our greatest calling card the man-made Sydney Opera House, on the edge of the God-made harbour.

It's the perfect balance.

Green Tape Chokes Our Tourism

Melbourne And Olympic City London Take The Top Awards For Ultimate Sports Cities

Melbourne has come a close second only to the 2012 Olympics host city London in the prestigious World's Ultimate Sport Cities Awards based on industry rankings from SportBusiness International.

As Melbourne prepares to host the Game One blockbuster of the 2012 Harvey Norman State of Origin Series between the Queensland Maroons and New South Wales Blues at Etihad Stadium tonight Premier Ted Baillieu announced that Melbourne is at the top of the world sporting events table.

"Melbourne topped the rankings for the World's Best Sport Venues and the World's Best Major Events Strategy, and was named the Best Sports City in the 'large' category for cities with a population of between four and six million people," Mr Baillieu said.

London, host of this year's Olympic Games, finished just 10 points ahead of Melbourne in the overall category.

"Major sporting events deliver significant economic benefits for Victoria, and major events generate jobs in the events industry as well as our hotels, restaurants, retail businesses and tourist attractions," Mr Baillieu said.

"Importantly major events showcase our great State to the world and that generates tourism and business investment.

"The Victorian Coalition Government is strengthening Victoria's competitive edge, we have successfully secured new major events and we are investing in our sporting venues to attract more major events and to continue to deliver an outstanding spectator experience," Mr Baillieu said.

The Coalition Government has provided new funding to maintain and upgrade Victorian world's best sports venues with planning starting on Stage 2 of the Melbourne Park redevelopment to ensure the Australian Open remains in Melbourne, the completion of Lakeside Stadium as a world class track and field venue and ongoing support for the operation of the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre and the State Hockey and Netball Centre.

The Government has also been delivering upgrades at the MCG and Stage 1 of the Melbourne Park redevelopment.

Minister for Tourism and Major Events Louise Asher said Victoria's major events calendar was worth $1.4 billion in economic benefit to our State each year.

"The Victorian Coalition Government has successfully attracted additional major events for Victoria and is committed to boosting Victoria's major events calendar in Melbourne and regional Victoria," Ms Asher said.

Ms Asher said the Coalition Government had secured matches of the 2013 British and Irish Lions Tour of Australia (Rugby), matches of the 2015 AFC Asia Cup, 2014 Masters Rowing World Championships (Ballarat), Host City ISAF Sailing World Cup, Olympic Farewell Series Australian Boomers and Opals (men's and women's basketball teams), WTC Asia-Pacific Ironman Championship, and the FIH Hockey Champions Trophy 2012.

The biennial SportsBusiness Ultimate Sports City Awards recognise the achievements of cities around the world in a number of areas relating to the cities' capacity to support sporting events.

The Awards are assessed by a panel of industry judges convened by SportsBusiness International using a range of criteria including: the number of annual sports events held; major events held or won between 2008 and 2016; numbers of federations hosted; the calibre of events for which bids are currently being made; facilities/venues; transport; accommodation; government support; security; legacy; public sports interest; quality of life; marketing; and the use of social media.

The Top 10 rankings for Ultimate Sports City

1. London 491
2. Melbourne 481
3. Sydney 421
4. New York 406
5. Manchester 398
6. Singapore 393
7. Berlin 370
8. Copenhagen 353
9. Glasgow 344
10. Paris 337

China Strategy Launched in Melbourne

Premier Ted Baillieu has launched Victoria's China Tourism Strategy at the Australia-China Business Week luncheon in Melbourne.

Mr Baillieu said China was Victoria's fastest growing tourism market with more than a quarter of a million Chinese tourists expected to visit this year, and the new ten year strategy aimed to take this growth to new heights.

"The strategy aims to lift the growth of China's tourism market in Victoria from 7% to more than 11% per year," Mr Baillieu said.

"The strategy would generate almost 42,000 additional jobs in Victoria, deliver up to $2.3 billion in annual visitor expenditure and boost gross state product over the ten year period by $18.2 billion.

"Victoria's China Tourism Strategy sets out a clear plan with five key priorities and an agenda that will engage government, business and the tourism industry to strengthen Victoria's relationship with China to reach ambitious targets that will deliver significant economic benefits," Mr Baillieu said.

The five priorities are:

• strengthening Victoria's market positioning;
• building on Victoria's strong education, migrant and business links;
• improving visitor access with China;
• enhancing the quality of the visitor experience; and
• aligning tourism investment to the Chinese visitor market.

Mr Baillieu said part of Victoria's China Tourism Strategy was an $8 million China tourism marketing campaign.

Tourism and major events minister Louise Asher said the strategy – the first of its kind for Victoria – was a blueprint for the tourism industry and business sector to leverage opportunities and address the challenges that lie ahead.

"The economic benefits of this market, worth $816 million last year alone, will depend on how well we deliver new and innovative experiences and satisfy the consumer demands of Chinese visitors," Ms Asher said.

"Other key aims of our strategy include improving Chinese language and cultural literacy services in Victoria and implementing a sophisticated digital marketing strategy," Ms Asher said.

According to the International Visitor Survey, China is Victoria's largest source of international overnight visitor arrivals, after overtaking New Zealand in the year ending December 2011.

Chinese visitors spent $816 million in Victoria in the year ending December 2011, the highest figure of any international market and representing a substantial increase of 19.1 per cent compared to the previous year.

Mr Baillieu said China was Victoria's largest and most important trading partner and this solid base would become a dynamic driver of growth and prosperity for Victoria over the next 30 years.

Victoria and China enjoy a deep bilateral relationship with strong ties and a number of linkages through trade and formalised partnerships," Mr Baillieu said.

Victoria's China Tourism Strategy maps out key priorities relating to market positioning, airline connections, investment, improving the Chinese visitor experience and building on Victoria's strong education, migration and business links with China.

(Source: www.accomnews.com.au)

Travelling Like a Fella to Melbourne

Australia’s cultural capital has ranked tenth behind powerhouses such as London, New York and Rio in AskMen’s fourth annual ‘Top 29 Cities for Men’ 2012.

As part of the AskMen study, men found Melbourne’s ‘buzzing night life’ and sports scene was key to drawing in the fellas while popular city, Sydney failed to even garner a showing.   

AskMen Australian editor Jamie Watt said he understood the appeal behind Melbourne, which managed to steal attendance from both local and international males.

London took top spot, with men declaring it “the centre of the world”, while Peru’s capital Lima was described as “the next sexy South America city you’ve never been to” and ranked in at number 13.

“From Olympic fever in London (#1), to the adventure of a lifetime in Mumbai (#2), to preparing to be the most watched city on earth in 2014 – thanks to Rio (#3) hosting the Soccer World Cup and of course, enjoying ‘the beach party of your dreams’ in Cartagena (#7) – when it comes to this year’s ‘Top 29 Cities for Men’ it’s all about world sporting spectacles, soaking up the sun, partying and enjoying the foodie factor in exotic locations,” an AskMen representative said.

Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh (#14) was also incorporated into the list this year “because the food keeps getting better” as well as Cartagena in Spain for hosting the “beach part of your dreams”.

(Source: Travmedia.com)