A guy on a show about advertisements said that Australia was the premier vacation destination for Americans. I hadn't heard many people I know talk about Australia. Marty would. Keith used to want to visit New Zealand. I know half a dozen people who've visited Australia, and I'm 60. My guess would have been Europe—UK, Italy.
Turns out it's Hawaii, then Europe, then Australia. Or it was recently, and it was in 2008.
Hawaii Tops List of Dream Vacation Destinations (report of a Gallup Poll in 2006)
And the first link I found is why I knew there WAS such a Gallup poll.
Where Americans Want To Travel And Why (2013)
It's not where Americans DO go, internationally. One of those would be Mexican resorts, or Caribbean cruises, because there are specials and packages offered all the time. Lately, cruises on European rivers, because they're advertised all the time, and people who have been on them say good things.
The question the Gallup poll asks is if money were no object, where would one like to go.
Part of what that second article says is "3. Australia – This answer surprised me. Not because I disagree, I love Australia. It surprised me because it’s not a trip to be taken lightly. It’s far away, on the expensive side and requires at least a couple of weeks to visit. Americans don’t typically travel that far away and we definitely don’t have multiple weeks of vacation to spare."
True about vacation. People who are old enough to afford that sort of vacation probably have three or four weeks of vacation in a year. Not like Germans with six weeks from a young age. People in their 20's *might* have two weeks' vacation in a year if they have great jobs.
So people can tell the Gallup poll "Australia," but it doesn't mean they can get there, so the claim baffled me. But it sounded good, in its context, I guess.
The other claim was that Australia's school system is exemplary and other nations look to Australia. I had never heard a peep about Australian schools in my life, outside of knowledge of "school of the air" for kids on remote cattle stations, when I was little. Public school by radio. That's been a while. The remote-school still exists, but it's online now.
Friends and strangers were all friendly in Australia. They reminded me of people in the southwestern U.S.—talkative and generous with time and knowledge. These two claims of "premier" status both seemed bravado, and maybe each speaker believed what he was saying as he said it, but I don't think either is nearly true.
Australia has commissions or organizations to promote education (studying in Australia) and maybe that's where the propaganda originates. If "propaganda" is too strong a word, perhaps there is rhetoric that is spoken and heard and sounds like truth.
http://www.austrade.gov.au/Education/Home
http://www.innovation.gov.au/internationaleducation/Pages/default.aspx
http://australia.gov.au/topics/education-and-training/international-education
3 comments:
I didn't count Rippy and Graham in the people I know who've been to Australia, but they're neither one American, so that's okay not to have counted them.
The vacation thing makes sense to me. If someone asked me where I'd like to go if money were no object, Australia would be near the top if not at the top. In reality, because money is a factor, we have not been there and I don't see us getting there without a Lottery win.
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