Oprah Winfrey will find it tough to sell Australia as a holiday destination to her audience if the Australian dollar stays near recent record highs against the US dollar:

Australian dollar up late, reaches two year high against US dollar

In addition to discouraging international visitors, the strong Aussie dollar will result in more Australians holidaying overseas rather than domestically.

The tourism industry isn’t confident Oprah will revive their fortunes:

OPRAH Winfrey’s visit won’t be enough to lift Australian tourism out of the doldrums, a peak industry group says.

The Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF) says the talkshow host’s visit will provide a huge boost for the industry.

But new figures show Australians are still heading overseas to holiday in record numbers, undermining any bounce the industry will get from attracting more international travellers.

The June quarter National Visitor Survey, released on Wednesday by Tourism Research Australia, shows overnight visitor numbers for the year ending June 2010 fell by 1.0 per cent, with visitor nights up 0.4 per cent and total spending up 1.9 per cent.

Source: Tony Bartlett, Oprah not enough to save tourism, Toowoomba Chronicle, 15/9/10