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Australia December 15, 2010 – Jody McKay, NSW Tourism Minister states it is excellent that Oprah chooses the lighting of an “O” on the Sydney Harbour Bridge as the main feature of her trip.

“Sydney’s famous globally for staging the world’s best New Year’s Eve celebrations and we gave Oprah and her audience a taste of what that’s like.” McKay added.

On Tuesday at the Sydney Opera House, Oprah, the talk show queen made the impressions at an official conference. She told journalists her visit would produce a huge amount of publicity for Australia.

Oprah has taped two shows for her 25th – and final – series in front of thousands of screaming fans in Sydney, Australia. The series were recorded to the city’s landmark opera house and renamed as “Oprah House” for the occasion. She felt so thankful for Australia spending about $5m (£3m) to bring her there. It was said that the shows will be worth millions more in tourism publicity. She also brought over 300 US audience members with her to tour the country. The total four shows that were taped are being billed as Oprah’s Ultimate Australian Adventure. Filming was interrupted by a dramatic entrance by Australian actor Hugh Jackman who was on a zipline running from the opera house accidentally went wrong giving a black eye in the ending.

BBC’s Nick Bryant in Sydney said that the talk show queen’s Australia tour has felt like a presidential, papal and royal visit rolled into one.

The filmed shows will be aired by January and are expected to reach tons of people in 145 countries. Oprah’s production company has reportedly spent almost $7m on the Australian trip which is added to the money offered by the Australian authorities.

The production had given away laptops for the students of a boy’s school in a low income neighborhood, Australian pearl necklaces for all 6, 000 audience members and a $250, 000 cheque an Australian man with cancer and his family.
Oprah’s tour has revived Australia’s cultural cringe, sense of national inferiority and a craving for international recognition. The tourism chiefs of Australia helped bankroll on Oprah’s tour and definitely hopes it will boost a sector that has pretty much stagnant for the past 10 years.

source:
news.ninemsn