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Lasting impression Olympics changes the stereotypes of Australia
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Men don't really shave with big knives. Kangaroos aren't hopping around town. And you might consider ordering up a Toohey's or Victoria Bitter: Here, at least, Foster's isn't Australian for beer. Surprise: As Australia's Olympics wind to an end, more than 100,000 international visitors are finding there's far more to this country than pop-culture cliches suggest. And Aussies couldn't be more delighted. "It's exposed Australia in a positive light to the rest of the world -- that we're not some backwater Down Under," says Karen Woods, a volunteer staffing an information booth at Olympic Park. So goes the eternal vexation of the land at the bottom of the world. For many, knowledge of Australia is limited and often merely iconic -- boomerangs and kangaroos and koalas, Crocodile Dundee and "G'day" and the Great Barrier Reef, with the Sydney Opera House and Elle MacPherson thrown in for good measure. Most of this is simply distance and relevance; Australia is a part of everyday life for very few Americans. So when the Olympics came to town, Australians - while recognizing that Sydney alone does not a nation make - hoped the games might counter the effects of all the dilettantes happy to throw another stereotype on the barbie. A spot check around town during the Olympics' final days indicates that for many visitors -- including, pivotally, some of the 21,000 journalists telling the world about Australia this month -- it has worked. "It's nothing like I thought it was going to be," says Ato Hand of Tallahassee, Fla., a member of the U.S. judo team. "I was expecting to see the stuff from Crocodile Dundee." That kind of about-face, multiplied millions of times, was the goal from the beginning
Australia's depiction of itself as a multicultural nation that transcended the stereotypes was crucial in Sydney's winning bid. And the opening ceremony took great pains to showcase what director Ric Birch called "a true portrait" -- a parade of the nation's less-heralded traditions that was a far cry from the inflatable kangaroos on bicycles that annoyed so many Australians at the Atlanta closing ceremony in 1996. Australians, white and aboriginal, applauded; the reversing of stereotypes was off to a good start. "It used to be called the `cultural cringe.' When you're a small community away from the centers of Western culture, you do feel that you're insufficiently appreciated," says Darryl Bennet, a research editor for the Australian Dictionary of Biography. "It has been a pretty one-dimensional image," he says. "Just seeing the real thing must have an effect, don't you think?" It's not just a matter of pride, though. It's economics, too -- especially tourism, which represents 10 percent of Australia's gross domestic product. Certainly there are travelers who will visit Australia based on old stereotypes, and the Australian Tourist Commission (logo: kangaroo and sunset) knows that: Its new ads both evoke and skewer cliches from marsupials to Paul Hogan, the actor who is, at this moment, filming a third "Crocodile Dundee" film in northern Australia. But Australia wants other tourism dollars, too -- those in the wallets of people who want superior food and wine, vibrant cities, varying cultural experiences and quiet beach towns and Outback treks. These are the travelers that the Australian business community hopes will see the Olympics, look beyond the cliches and call up their travel agents. "The reality is, this is a country that has been seen in monodimensional terms. We always knew that the Olympics gave us the opportunity to broaden people's perspective of Australia around the world,' says the commission's managing director, John Morse. "It has set us up like no other event in the history of our country," Morse says. Now, he says, "I think the world's eyes will be open to what kind of country this is." It's looking good. Sydney -- already the world's top convention city, according to the government -- reports a flurry of future bookings from Europe and the United States as its skyline is broadcast around the world. The city expects a 10 percent increase in visitors next year, largely because of the games. To make sure that continues, the tourism commission is sending staff around the world to research how the Olympics changed Australia's image abroad. So now there are new icons, not yet cliches: Cathy Freeman and Ian Thorpe. Big jellyfish and deadly spiders. Stunning harbor views and hordes of friendly locals that have impressed even the International Olympic Committee. Its director general, Francois Carrard, says he has been reading "Tyranny of Distance," a book about Australia's isolation. Thanks to the games, Carrard says, "I think this tyranny of distance is being abolished." Julie Swail of Placentia, Calif., the captain of the U.S. women's water polo team who is on her fifth visit here, is beyond the cliches. But she knows many folks back home who aren't. "Their perception is koala bears in every tree and kangaroos jumping through the streets. There's so much more," she says. "Of all the countries I've ever visited, it's the only country I could ever see myself living in." Australians who worry about shallow stereotypes could ask for nothing more.
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