By KAY O'SULLIVAN
South Africa scores more tourists
While debate about the financial benefit of Melbourne's formula one Qantas Australian Grand Prix continues, there is no questioning the positive impact last year's FIFA World Cup had on tourism in South Africa. More than 8 million tourists visited South Africa last year, a million more than in 2009, with 309,000 visiting specifically to see the World Cup. South African tourism is particularly pleased that each month attracted a record number of tourists when compared with 2009.
Regal outfits on display
It took four years of negotiations but the exhibition Grace Kelly: Style Icon, is coming to Australia. With more than 100 outfits worn by the Hollywood actress turned regal style icon, the exhibition will be on display at the Bendigo Art Gallery from March 10 until June 17 next year.
Expect to see the outfit Kelly wore when she met her husband, Prince Rainier of Monaco, the original Hermes Kelly bag and couture gowns by iconic fashion designers such as Christian Dior, Balenciaga, Givenchy and Yves Saint Laurent.
More than 200,000 people saw the exhibition during the six months it was on show at London's Victoria and Albert Museum last year.
Fashion followers
The Audio Design Museum website has a series of audio walking tours of the key design precincts in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
There are nine tours. In Sydney, the precincts covered are Darlinghurst and a combined tour of Paddington and Surry Hills. In Melbourne it's Flinders Lane, Gertrude Street and the CBD and in Brisbane it's Fortitude Valley, South Brisbane and West End. Each tour explores the spectrum of design from architecture, furniture, industrial design, graphics and jewellery to fashion via a map, MP3 download and video. There is also a jewellery-specific tour in Melbourne and one following furniture design in Sydney.
See audiodesignmuseum.com.
Paris taxis wear black
New taxis in Paris are now legally required to have a black roof and black side trims plus lighting that clearly displays whether they are available for hire. The new law is part of the French government's desire to maintain Paris's reputation as the most beautiful city in the world and also to make it easier to get around, especially for tourists.
Taxis that are available have a green light on the roof and a red light if they are not. Previously, the lights were yellow and orange on a white roof and more difficult to see.
Backing for online booking
Tourism NSW has added a new feature to its Visit NSW and Sydney websites that provides for online booking. Not all of the 10,000 tourism products on the sites are available for live booking but more are expected to become available.
See sydney.com and visitnsw.com.
Car anniversary celebrations
Germany is celebrating the 125th anniversary of the car with a year-long celebration of exhibitions, rallies and festivals.
The main focus will be the Automobile Summer 2011, a 125-day series of events from May 7 to September 10 in Baden-Wurttemberg, the state in which Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler lived and worked. Mercedes-Benz World, located in the state's capital, Stuttgart, is staging an exhibition of modern and contemporary art, including CARS, the Andy Warhol series Mercedes-Benz commissioned for the the 100th anniversary of the car.
See germany-tourism.de.
Queensland's corporate memo
Tourism Queensland's latest global marketing campaign, Million Dollar Memo, got off to a flying start with more than 32,000 hits on the website in the 48 hours after it was launched.
The competition, which asks employees to submit a video explaining why their company deserves $1 million worth of travel in Queensland, attracted 270 newspaper stories globally and was mentioned on radio in Germany and India.
The campaign, which was 18 months in planning, is part of Tourism Queensland's strategy to garner a bigger share of the lucrative business-incentive tourism market, the chief executive of Tourism Queensland, Anthony Hayes, says. In 2009, corporate-rewards travel delivered $1 billion to the Australian economy and $334 million of that went to Queensland.
The marketing campaign will finish with 20 companies competing in a challenge beginning on August 23 to determine which company gets $1 million of five-star travel. The winner will be announced on August 31.
See milliondollarmemo.com.
Send news items to smarttraveller@fairfax.com.au.
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