Best Job winner gets Oprah spot

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This was published 14 years ago

Best Job winner gets Oprah spot

By Christine Kellett
Best Job in the World winner and Great Barrier Reef spruiker Ben Southall has chatted to US talk show mogul Oprah Winfrey and is set to appear in front of more than seven million Americans.

Best Job in the World winner and Great Barrier Reef spruiker Ben Southall has chatted to US talk show mogul Oprah Winfrey and is set to appear in front of more than seven million Americans.Credit: Reuters/AP

It could be Tourism Queensland's biggest coup yet.

Best Job in the World winner and Great Barrier Reef spruiker Ben Southall has chatted to US talk show mogul Oprah Winfrey and is set to appear in front of more than seven million Americans.

The five-minute slot, filmed via satellite from Hamilton Island, where Southall has been appointed the honorary "caretaker" as part of an advertising stunt, will be screened in the US today and sees the UK native talk up the merits of the region in a bid to lure more international visitors.

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It will go to air in Australia at a date yet to be fixed.

The guest spot has Premier Anna Bligh and Tourism Queensland bosses rubbing their hands in anticipation.

"Oprah has been the number one US talk show for 23 seasons and Ben's appearance will deliver an unprecedented level of publicity for Queensland," Ms Bligh said.

The State Government is looking for all the international exposure it can get after the embarrassing collapse of the A1GP event on the Gold Coast.

The open-wheelers were to have been a major overseas drawcard for the four-day race meet, but have been replaced with V8 Supercars after A1GP's unpaid tax bills forced its 11th-hour withdrawal.

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Southall was chosen from nearly 30,000 applicants for the Bet Job, which has reaped hundreds of millions of dollars of free publicity for Tourism Queensland.

Since he took up the six-month post in July, he has given more than 150 media interviews.

Tourism Queensland says the campaign is paying dividends, with booking to Queensland from Germany up three per cent and a Kansas family in the US booking a 10 day trip after reading Southall's blog.

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