Sorry Australia, Europe rules

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This was published 12 years ago

Sorry Australia, Europe rules

By David Whitley
Sydney Opera House versus Rome's Colosseum. There's no comparison between Australia and Europe, says David Whitley.

Sydney Opera House versus Rome's Colosseum. There's no comparison between Australia and Europe, says David Whitley.

Europe-based travel writer David Whitley explains we just can't compete when it comes to top tourist attractions.

Australia's tourism chiefs are desperate to boost domestic tourism, but Australian travellers seem determined to fly to the other side of the world. Amid all the hand-wringing as to why this is the case, a lot of nonsense is being spouted. Some of Europe is cheaper on the ground, some of it is more expensive (hello Switzerland!). Service standards vary greatly, much as they do in Australia, and foodies can eat as well in Australia as they can do in most of Europe.

But there are some things that Australia just can't compete on. In fact, there's no point trying to compete on them – it's just not going to work. These include...

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History

Australian history gets an unfair rap. It is, in many aspects, fascinating. The First Fleet and subsequent convict era was one of humankind's most incredible social experiments, and there's 50,000 years of indigenous heritage to delve into. What Australia hasn't got is Europe's saturation of different, overlapping histories. It hasn't got Greek temples lying near medieval battlefields, or Roman ruins excavated near museums about 20th century persecution that break your heart. It's a mistake to think that European history equals world history, but it has disproportionately shaped the world and there's an extraordinary richness and depth.

Great buildings

The Sydney Opera House doesn't exactly amount to an embarrassment of riches

Sorry, but the Sydney Opera House doesn't exactly amount to an embarrassment of riches. Australia is playing catch up, having realistically only started with stone, bricks and mortar in 1788. Go to Europe, and at just about every turn you're confronted with cute churches, massive castles, show-off palaces and jaw-slackening cathedrals. You've also got a range of architectural styles – the Gothic spires, renaissance Old Towns, baroque royal residences and neo-classical state buildings – that can't be found anywhere else in the world. And it's not just one-offs either - often whole cities are a consistent feast for the eyes of architecture lovers.

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Museums

Australia has got one great museum – the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. It's got a few others that are good, but some European cities have three or four world class museums to themselves. Crucially, it also has museums that people will go out of their way for. The Louvre, the Uffizi, the British Museum, the Prado and the Rijksmuseum are destinations in their own right. But they're in cities that have numerous other museums – often on niche topics – that are genuinely excellent too.

Geographic proximity

It's 877km from Sydney to Melbourne, and it would be fair to say that there are no world class cities on the way. Within 300km of Prague, you can be in Berlin, Munich or Vienna. Extend it to 600km, and you've got Budapest, Venice and Krakow. Go the whole 877km, and it brings Amsterdam, Milan and Copenhagen into play. There's no real need to continue this argument, is there?

Diversity

It's not just about ticking off different cities though – it's about exploring what's different about the way of life in the countries they're part of. The British do things differently from the French, who in turn do things very differently from their neighbours in Spain or Germany. Slovakia feels distinct from Hungary, Ukraine, Poland and Austria, all of which it borders, while a ferry across the Adriatic from Italy to Croatia, Greece or Albania puts you in another world. Crossing borders, attempting to get by in new languages and dealing with different cuisines or customs – these are things you just don't get in Australia. And that such differing takes on life and cultures are so close to each other is a major part of Europe's enduring appeal.

Towns and small cities

It's not just the countries and big cities that are close together. Europe isn't all that much bigger than Australia, and has a population that's about 40 times as large. This means that so many more population centres have to be crammed in. With all due respect to Newcastle, Wollongong, Bendigo and Ballarat, Australia's small cities aren't all that exciting when compared to their European counterparts. From Madrid, you've got easy day trips to Segovia and Toledo. From London you've got Bath, Cambridge and Oxford. From Florence, there's Siena, Pisa and Bologna. Realistically, which small cities or towns would you regarded as a must see from any Australian capital? Exactly.

Public transport

Squeezing so many people into a relatively small area makes for enough critical mass to mean excellent, regular public transport is both viable and desirable. Europe's cities are not only closer together – they're a lot easier to get between than Australian cities without needing to drive or fly.

Different types of scenery

Australia's strength is the great outdoors – the beaches, the outback, the bush and the rainforest. There's nowhere like it on earth. But that's both a blessing and a curse, as there are certain landscapes that you don't get in Oz. Proper mountains is the obvious one – the Australian Alps are pathetic compared to the real Alps – but Europe has other types of scenery that are poorly represented in Oz. There's no real equivalent of the island-studded Croatian coast, Sicily's volcano-dominated terrain, Britain's bucolic, gum tree-free countryside or Norway's jagged fjords. Europe doesn't necessarily look better than Australia, but it sure looks different.

Long summer nights

Melburnians and Taswegians may care to disagree, but Australia's winters aren't particularly hardcore. There's a much more marked difference between the seasons in Europe, and the further north you go, the more this is true. It's not just about temperature though – it's about hours of daylight. There is something special about getting to nine or 10 at night, and it still being bright. There's a certain, indescribable energy that hits as Europeans sat on café terraces try to make the most of these long days before autumn and winter roll round again.

Festivals

Thousands of years of history have thrown up some rather bizarre traditions that make for incredible, etched-on-the-memory spectacles. Oktoberfest, Semana Santa, the Running of the Bulls and the Venice Carnival are obvious ones, but look deeper and you'll find that each region has its own oddball event that takes in hundreds of years of custom and pageantry. From the Palio horse race around Siena's main square to Queen's Day in Amsterdam, there's always a big, culturally unique party going on somewhere. And that's before you start throwing in the big music festivals such as Glastonbury, national days and sporting events.

These things are always going to appeal. There's nothing Australia's tourism authorities can do about them – but they can differentiate and sing about what Australia does do better instead.

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