Ellen's Visit to Australia Spurs Huge Travel Boost

Australian tourism officials say Ellen DeGeneres's highly-publicized visit to their nation in March helped increased U.S. visits there by 22%

DeGeneres filmed her extremely-popular talk show in Australia for five days, bringing along her Aussie-born wife, actress Portia de Rossi. DeGeneres's visit was in conjunction with Destination New South Wales and the airline Qantas, with Australian tourism commercials airing in New York and Los Angeles during the talk show. The "Dance Your Way Down Under" campaign lasted from April to June and was promoted on American websites.

By all estimates, the campaign was a success. Qantas's website received 62 million impressions, 220,000 sales leads involving Australian trips were delivered, and U.S. visits to Australia increased in the period by 22%. Call it the Ellen effect.

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