Lizard Island
海龟湾（Turtle Bay）
一
般说来，蜥蜴岛（Lizard Island）的珊瑚美景已经足以让游客慷慨解囊，在旅游旺季为岛上那家五星级度假村的套房付出超过1,300澳元（1,341美元）一晚的高价。这个岛离澳大利亚昆士兰州（Queensland）的福拉德利角（Cape Flattery）只有27公里，岛上有24片白色的沙滩，可以从事浮潜活动，还拥有世界一流的潜水及深海钓鱼设施。
Lizard Island
Watson’s Beach
度假村的女发言人路易丝•朗曼（Louise Longman）说，今年的预订可能会来得晚一点儿，不过，到现在为止，我还不知道会有多少人来订。的确，外国游客预订昆士兰州高档酒店的时间似乎有所推迟，不过，现在判断灾害对国内预订造成的影响还为时尚早。灾害发生的时机真是再糟糕不过了，因为蜥蜴岛度假村所属的北特拉华公司（Delware North Cos.）刚刚掏出了2,000万澳元，对包括该度假村在内的旗下高档酒店进行了翻修。
正常情况下，如果你旺季的时候在蜥蜴岛度假村的锚湾（Anchor Bay）套房住上五个晚上，每晚的房价是将近2,000澳元。如今，你却可以按1,550澳元的价格预订这个套房，享受23%的折扣。一般来说，在8月至11月的旅游旺季，度假村的房间都会提前三至六个月被人订满。如今，度假村却在自己的网站上向游客担保，蜥蜴岛并没有受到“雅西”飓风的影响，现在还在营业。
这家拥有40个房间的高级度假村坐落在一个国家公园里面，远远地避开了洪水和五级飓风“雅西”的伤害——飓风没造成什么破坏，只是迫使酒店疏散了住客，三天以后才恢复营业。即便如此，因为担心国外预订减少，店方还是不得不采取了措施，具体说就是推出了一些吸引眼球的优惠价格。这么干的并不只是蜥蜴岛，代表昆士兰旅游业的政府组织昆士兰旅游局（Tourism Queensland）已经投入超过70万澳元的资金，举办了两场针对澳大利亚居民的市场推广活动，并且推出了一个耗资1,000万澳元的政府援助计划，计划中的部分资金将会用于国际性的市场推广活动。据昆士兰旅游局估计，在这个日历年里，灾害造成的损失合计将达3亿澳元左右。
目前，昆士兰旅游业面临的最大问题是信息交流。在此之前，这个问题因发生在澳大利亚国外的一些不当举动而雪上加霜。灾害还没有结束的时候，加拿大政府曾经发布过一份旅游警告，针对的却是澳大利亚一个并未遭受风暴侵袭的地区。昆士兰地区目前仍然是雨季，对于正在这一地区观光的游客来说，各种优惠是惟一的亮点。
二十多岁的艾米•巴克斯特（Aimee Baxter）来自纽约，目前正在环游亚太地区。上个星期，她抵达了凯恩斯（Cairns）——要想游览著名的大堡礁（Great Barrier reef），这里就是起点。她本打算推迟自己的凯恩斯之行，用保险公司赔付的旅游保险费先去别的地方。不过，等她到达新西兰的时候，却听说凯恩斯一切正常。接下来的五个星期里，她会从凯恩斯一路游玩到墨尔本，中间还会停下来参加帆船、冲浪和其他一些活动。
巴克斯特的第一段行程是圣灵群岛（Whitsunday islands）三日游，这趟旅程的正常价格是550澳元左右，可她只花了不到350澳元就订到了，因为昆士兰州北部的大多数地方依然是游人稀少。即将踏上圣灵群岛小艇之旅的时候，巴克斯特说，搞旅游的商家全都推出了五花八门的优惠政策，可他们首先得把大家拉到这里来才行。
Geoffrey Rogow
（本文版权归道琼斯公司所有，未经许可不得翻译或转载。）
Lizard Island's coral majesty is usually enough to entice travelers to fork over the more than 1,300 Australian dollars (US$1,341) a night for a suite in the five-star resort during peak season. Just 27 kilometers off the coast of Queensland's Cape Flattery, Lizard Island has 24 white-sand beaches, snorkeling, world-class scuba diving and deep-sea fishing.
But a series of floods and a subsequent cyclone devastating Australia's tourism state — Queensland — has many international tourists, who typically book their trips to the area now, rethinking any upcoming travel to the area. And the resort's operators are in overdrive to make sure they still come.
'(Bookings) are looking to be a little later this year, though by how much I couldn't say just yet,' said Louise Longman, a spokeswoman for the resort. While reservations from international travelers seem to have slowed at high-end hotels in Queensland, it's too early to say how domestic bookings will be affected. The timing couldn't be worse. Lizard Island's parent company, Delware North Cos., just refurbished the resort as part of a A$20 million overhaul of its high-end hotels.
Typically, a five-night stay in its Anchor Bay Suite during peak season would cost almost A$2,000 a night. Today, that can be booked for A$1,550 a night, a 23% discount. On its website, the resort — which is typically full during the high season between August and November, booked three to six months in advance — assures visitors 'Lizard Island has not been affected by cyclone Yasi and is open for business.'
The exclusive 40-room resort, surrounded by a national park, broadly side-stepped the floods and category five Cyclone Yasi — which caused little damage but prompted guest evacuations for three days. Even so, concerns about a slowdown in international bookings forced action in the form of attention-grabbing deals, a trend where Lizard Island isn't alone. Tourism Queensland, the government group that represents the tourism industry of Queensland, has launched two marketing campaigns of more than A$700,000 total aimed at Australian residents, with part of an additional A$10 million government support package for the industry expected to be used in international marketing campaigns. All told, the group estimates a loss of about A$300 million this calendar year thanks to the disasters.
Communication is the industry's biggest problem right now, something that was magnified by missteps overseas. The Canadian government issued a travel-advisory warning at one point during the disasters for a part of the country unaffected by the storms. For tourists currently traveling in the region, still in the midst of its rainy season, the deals are the lone bright spot.
Aimee Baxter, a New Yorker in her mid-20s currently traveling through Asia-Pacific, touched down last week in Cairns — the launching point for the famed Great Barrier reef. She had been prepared to delay her Cairns trip and use her travel insurance to travel elsewhere first, but when she checked in from New Zealand, she was told all things were go in Cairns. Over the next five weeks, she will head from Cairns to Melbourne, stopping for sailing, surfing and other activities on the way.
Her first trip, a three-day excursion to the Whitsunday islands — usually costs about A$550. But Ms. Baxter booked the trip for less than A$350 on Wednesday because most of north Queensland remained a ghost town. 'The tour operators are all running so many deals, but they still have to get people just to come here,' said Ms. Baxter before heading out on her Whitsunday boat trip.
Geoffrey Rogow
But a series of floods and a subsequent cyclone devastating Australia's tourism state — Queensland — has many international tourists, who typically book their trips to the area now, rethinking any upcoming travel to the area. And the resort's operators are in overdrive to make sure they still come.
'(Bookings) are looking to be a little later this year, though by how much I couldn't say just yet,' said Louise Longman, a spokeswoman for the resort. While reservations from international travelers seem to have slowed at high-end hotels in Queensland, it's too early to say how domestic bookings will be affected. The timing couldn't be worse. Lizard Island's parent company, Delware North Cos., just refurbished the resort as part of a A$20 million overhaul of its high-end hotels.
Typically, a five-night stay in its Anchor Bay Suite during peak season would cost almost A$2,000 a night. Today, that can be booked for A$1,550 a night, a 23% discount. On its website, the resort — which is typically full during the high season between August and November, booked three to six months in advance — assures visitors 'Lizard Island has not been affected by cyclone Yasi and is open for business.'
The exclusive 40-room resort, surrounded by a national park, broadly side-stepped the floods and category five Cyclone Yasi — which caused little damage but prompted guest evacuations for three days. Even so, concerns about a slowdown in international bookings forced action in the form of attention-grabbing deals, a trend where Lizard Island isn't alone. Tourism Queensland, the government group that represents the tourism industry of Queensland, has launched two marketing campaigns of more than A$700,000 total aimed at Australian residents, with part of an additional A$10 million government support package for the industry expected to be used in international marketing campaigns. All told, the group estimates a loss of about A$300 million this calendar year thanks to the disasters.
Communication is the industry's biggest problem right now, something that was magnified by missteps overseas. The Canadian government issued a travel-advisory warning at one point during the disasters for a part of the country unaffected by the storms. For tourists currently traveling in the region, still in the midst of its rainy season, the deals are the lone bright spot.
Aimee Baxter, a New Yorker in her mid-20s currently traveling through Asia-Pacific, touched down last week in Cairns — the launching point for the famed Great Barrier reef. She had been prepared to delay her Cairns trip and use her travel insurance to travel elsewhere first, but when she checked in from New Zealand, she was told all things were go in Cairns. Over the next five weeks, she will head from Cairns to Melbourne, stopping for sailing, surfing and other activities on the way.
Her first trip, a three-day excursion to the Whitsunday islands — usually costs about A$550. But Ms. Baxter booked the trip for less than A$350 on Wednesday because most of north Queensland remained a ghost town. 'The tour operators are all running so many deals, but they still have to get people just to come here,' said Ms. Baxter before heading out on her Whitsunday boat trip.
Geoffrey Rogow
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