Australia

(Dive Travel Business News - May 10, 2010) -- Australia is planning to subject commercial ships passing through all parts of the Great Barrier Reef to greater surveillance. The tough new measures are intended to protect the region from pollution. It follows the grounding of the Chinese bulk coal carrier, the Shen Neng I, while traveling in restricted waters around the reef, hit a sandbank at full speed on Easter Sunday, destroying vast areas of reef and leaking about three tons of oil into the sea.

Ships sailing through southern parts of the Great Barrier Reef will be tracked by satellite and required to regularly report their movements under the new regulations. Vessels using the reef's northern expanses are already subject to such strict monitoring.

Conservationists say that greater surveillance will make a difference but believe that professional navigators are also needed alongside the satellite tracking system. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - March 17, 2010) -- Tourists on Australia's  Heron Island and Lady Elliot islands in the Great Barrier Reef were told to evacuate Wednesday March 17 as Tropical Cyclone Ului, makes its way toward Australia's Queensland coast. Ului is expected to make Australian landfall between Rockhampton and Townsville on March 20 as a Category 4, bringing estimated 1-minute maximum sustained winds to the region of around 138 km/h (86 mph). Wind gusts in the area may be considerably higher.

Cyclone Uli storm is currently moving westward over an area of high sea surface temperatures with sustained winds of up to 115 miles per hour (185 kilometers per hour) and gusts up to 162 miles per hour (260 kilometers per hour), Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said.  read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - January 18, 2010) -- Qanta Airways will signficantly increase air service between the United States and Australia with the addition of  daily Los Angeles-Sydney service and three per week service between Los Angeles and Melbourne. The move from six to 10 flights per week coincides with the recent delivery of the airline's fifth and sixth A380 aircraft along with a range of special fares released last week as part of the annual G'Day USA travel promotion.

Now in its 7th year, G'Day USA offers savings of up to 40% in Economy and Premium Economy, along with savings of 60% in Business if booked before Feb 1, 2010.

Round-trip Economy fares on flights to Sydney from Los Angeles and San Francisco start from $798, while round-trip Economy fares from New York to Sydney start at $998. Qantas now operates 40 return services per week between the United States and Australia, including 33 from Los Angeles (to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane), four from San Francisco and three from Honolulu. For more information, visit www.qantas.com.

(Dive Travel Business News - Oct 23, 2009) -- Queensland and NSW will set aside their State of Origin rivalry to become an irresistible destination for international tourists Queensland Premier Anna Bligh announced today.

The Premier said the "tourism ceasefire" meant the blues and maroons would join forces in a landmark marketing partnership to drive more international visitors to the two states.

"As far as tourism is concerned we're on the same side. We want people to come from overseas and enjoy our two great states," said the Premier.

Ms Bligh said Tourism Queensland would work with Tourism New South Wales in a range of key countries including Japan, the USA, China, the UK and Europe.

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(Sydney Morning Herald - May 29, 2009) -- The travel industry has been warned there will be no grace period for changes to the Trade Practices Act to outlaw component pricing, by which a supplier advertises a price that doesn't include additional taxes and charges.

The changes were enacted last week but had been in the pipeline for three years, since they were first proposed by the previous federal government.

Two industries travel and automobiles were singled out as the biggest users of component pricing in Australia, even though three of the four domestic airlines have voluntarily observed a pricing-transparency code for most of the past three years.

Now, the agency that will enforce the new legislative changes, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, says no mercy will be shown to lawbreakers.

"It's not as if it has crept up on people without notice, without warning," says ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel. read more »