Tuesday 15 January 2013

In a major international coup, Australian organisation Swisse Wellness, supported by Qantas, is bringing the top-rated Ellen DeGeneres Show to Australia.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show will visit Melbourne and Sydney in March to film a series of segments that will air on her return to the United States in April.  The visit was announced by Ellen DeGeneres and Swisse Wellness Global Ambassador Nicole Kidman in an episode that aired in the United States last week.

As part of the in-studio announcement, The Ellen DeGeneres Show audience members each received a free return flight on Qantas between the United States and Australia.

Swisse Wellness has partnered with The Ellen DeGeneres Show as its launch marketing platform in the USA. Their CEO Radek Sali is thrilled with the start to 2013. “We set an ambitious target for our business to be up and running in early 2013 and Swisse Wellness has delivered on this challenge to make this happen and we will be in ten thousand US stores in the first quarter of this year,” said Mr.Sali.

“There is no doubt bringing Ellen to Australia and signing Australia’s own Nicole Kidman as the global face of our brand will go down in history as watershed moments for our company. It is a benchmark way to launch our brand globally,” he said.

“Ellen represents our healthy and happy culture and celebrates life every day – key pillars of our wonderful Australian company,” said Mr. Sali.  “Qantas is such an advocate of Australia and Australian tourism, particularly in the United States,” he said.

Surprisingly Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has never visited Australian even though she is married to Portia de Rossi who is Australian born and one of Ellens greatest movie successes was that of voicing 'Dory' the Regal Tang  lead character in the Disney/Pixar blockbuster 'Finding Nemo', which was based on the desperate quest of a Clownfish father searching for his son 'Nemo' after he is taken from the Great Barrier Reef.

.…Ellen says of her visit, “I am partnering with SWISSE Wellbeing and I love it because they’re an Australian company and they want to help me get to Australia.  So, I am actually for the first time in my life going to Australia…I’m going in March and I’m going to shoot a bunch of stuff in Melbourne and Sydney. We’re going to do tape pieces and meet the fans and hang out…

Readers will remember that Oprah Winfrey came to Australia in 2011 with her audience and enjoyed a massive welcome with high hopes that she could deliver a rebirth in the US tourism market.  A poorly timed succession of
natural disasters produced negligible results for the hoped for increased tourism from the USA. 

Maybe this time mother nature will be a little kinder and when Ellen spreads the word that Australia is the coolest place on the planet we may see some real results.

Of course The Newsport hopes that she comes up to Port Douglas and visits both our World Heritage wonders on The Great Barrier Reef (we'll help her find Nemo and Dory) and the Daintree River and Rainforest. 

After all when you've seen one City, you've seen them all and although both Sydney and Melbourne have got their plus points, there's nothing quite like Tropical Australia.

Let's hope Ellen gets the best advice this time and visits the right places to ensure her visit leaves a lasting memory to take back home.