Business1 min read

‘Tourists hate themselves’ – which is why Tasmania is telling people to stay away

By · Via The Guardian · Published by Everything Blog

In short

The initiative relies on research indicating modern visitors dislike typical holiday crowds and prefer identifying as travellers rather than tourists. Advertisements featuring former newsreader Lee Lin Chin showcase scenic walking trails to highlight slower, quieter alternatives to bustling attractions. Tourism Tasmania CEO Sarah Kingston Clark explained that the humorous tone reflects modern travel tensions rather than genuine anti-visitor sentiment. Observers note the Scandinavian-style messaging aims to funnel economic benefits into regional areas, provided the on-the-ground reality matches promotional claims.

Key points

  • The promotional effort targets stressed mainland city residents looking for quieter and l…: The promotional effort targets stressed mainland city residents looking for quieter and less crowded environments.
  • Tourism leaders designed the campaign to disperse visitors into regional communities to s…: Tourism leaders designed the campaign to disperse visitors into regional communities to stimulate local economies.
  • QUT associate professor Char-lee McLennan warned success requires the visitor experience…: QUT associate professor Char-lee McLennan warned success requires the visitor experience to deliver genuine regional economic benefits.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Research shows “tourists hate themselves” – which is exactly why the marketing flacks at Tourism Tasmania are telling them to stay away from the island state.

Its new campaign declares the island state is “not really for tourists”, enlisting former SBS newsreader Lee Lin Chin to help sell the tongue-in-cheek campaign, based on the idea that Australians prefer identifying as a “traveller” rather than a “tourist”.

Its centrepiece is a short video of a man being pointed to the back of an endless queue for a “world famous” pastry. He eventually abandons the line to find solitude in the Tasmanian outdoors.

Chin, who lives mostly offline without a mobile phone, also fronts videos exploring the walking trails on her visit.

Tourism Tasmania’s CEO, Sarah Kingston Clark, said the campaign was deliberately wry rather than anti-visitor, to reflect the “tensions” of modern travel.

Those tensions play out in the research, Prof Can-Seng Ooi, the professor of cultural and heritage tourism at the University of Tasmania, suggested.

“Studies have shown that tourists hate themselves,” he said. “They want to avoid each other.”

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