By Roy Weavers  

The Tourism Minister, Dr.Liz Constable, this week, launched a WA initiative to showcase hundreds of destinations and experiences around the state, using the internet to gain maximum exposure.

This campaign includes an international competition to win a nine week taxi ride around WA which will be filmed and broadcast globally.

Needless to say State Opposition labelled the tourism strategy, a "dumb idea".  The Opposition's Tourism spokeswoman Ljiljanna Ravlich says the Government is wasting taxpayer's money on an ineffective strategy. Ms Ravlich said the campaign paints an inaccurate picture about the true size of WA. She thinks suggesting you could take a taxi around the state has the capacity to mislead.

In response, Dr Constable said the taxi ride was designed to draw international attention to WA's tourist attractions. "A lot of people travel by road and everyone identifies with taxis, wherever you go in the world there are taxis so it's sort of an international symbol of travel."

Dr Constable was more interested in focusing on the fact that the campaign reflects changes in the way modern travellers access information to plan holidays. She said it was time to not only involve the traditional media in newspapers, television and radio but also an internet competition and campaign as well so it's time to refresh and do something new and innovative."  This tourism strategy is costing $5.5 million.

Editors Comments:  It's funny isn't it when the opposition to an excellent idea actually knows it's a good idea but still feels it has to oppose it but attacking the fine details of the campaign.  There can be no argument from any quarter that using the internet to showcase the smaller destinations and experiences is a great idea.

Before anyone starts throwing criticism at the use of internet they should be reminded that the traditional forms of tourist promotions are patently not working so shouldn't we be applauding new initiatives rather than poopoohing them ?  Get your head out of the sand !