The bizarre inclusion in Tourism Australia’s new ad for China

This week Tourism Australia launched the second phase of its global “Come and say G’day” tourism campaign, starring CGI kangaroo Ruby and various celebrities from Gen Z’s version of Paul Hogan, Bob Irwin, to British celebrity chef Nigella Lawson, Indian influencer Sara Tendulkar (daughter of cricketing legend Sachin) and Chinese actor Yosh Yu.

So far, so normal. The ads feature all the typical stuff you see in Tourism Australia campaigns – stunning landscapes, wildlife, the Sydney Opera House and a good dose of humour.

But there’s one attraction that I don’t believe has ever featured in an Australian tourism campaign before and its blink-and-you’ll-miss-it inclusion seems rather unusual.

During the Chinese version of the ad (watch it below), there’s a scene of Yosh Yu enjoying a spectacular display from the southern lights, or the aurora australis.

It’s true that the aurora borealis, or northern lights, are a major tourist attraction in the northern hemisphere and there’s a good reason for that – seeing the lights is an incredible, bucket-list experience. “Like seeing music” is how I described one evening in Canada’s Northwest Territories.

But here’s the problem – you can’t always see the northern lights. Conditions have to be right. There needs to be clear skies, little light pollution and solar storms. The latter, solar particles that crash into the Earth’s atmosphere and are pulled towards the poles, is what causes the phenomenon.

And it is generally much easier to see the northern lights than the southern because the northern continents are much closer to the North Pole than Australia is to the South Pole.

But even then, there are no guarantees. On a trip to northern Sweden a few years ago, I saw them only briefly on my first night. Cloud and snow rolled in for the next few nights. It goes to show that even in some of the best places in the world to see the aurora, it’s never a certainty.

Which is why the inclusion of the southern lights in Tourism Australia’s new campaign is a little baffling. If you need a bit of luck to see the lights in the northern hemisphere, in the south you need extraordinary luck.

Aside from the fact that conditions need to be right, much of the time the aurora australis is not visible to the naked eye. Your camera may pick it up, but you won’t see much more than a vague haze.

Even Tasmania, probably the best place in Australia to see the aurora, has plenty of caveats in its guide to seeing the southern lights.

“Sightings are fleeting and faint. This is a celestial event that can play hard to get – images of green beams and purple glows are not the norm, and sometimes they’re barely visible to the naked eye,” reads Discover Tasmania’s guide.

Tourism Australia has admitted it used a bit of movie magic to create the scene. While TA says it was “recreated” from actual footage of the southern lights, Yosh Yu and his companion didn’t actually see it, as depicted in the ad, as they weren’t there during the aurora season (May-September).

Tasmanian photographer Luke Tscharke, who runs night photography workshops and is about to open an exhibition of aurora photos in Hobart, says the ad is unrealistic.

“Whilst we have had auroral events in Tasmania that displayed with that intensity, they’re exceedingly rare,” he said. “This kind of portrayal certainly creates unrealistic expectations for visitors.”

“Strong aurora can be visible to the naked eye, but what they’ve composited in has much more of a northern lights appearance. In Tasmania, aurora typically appear along the southern horizon rather than being immersive and all around you like in northern latitudes.”

So why did Tourism Australia decide to include this phenomenon when, for the vast majority of visitors to our country, there is little chance they will ever get to see it? It’s not like there aren’t alternatives. Tasmania has a wealth of attractions that are always available – Cradle Mountain, the Bay of Fires (where the aurora scene was filmed) and Wineglass Bay, the Museum of Old and New Art.

According to Tourism Australia, “aurora exploration” has become a major driver of tourism, and Asian markets are particularly interested in this, along with stargazing and other “dark sky” experiences.

But I can’t help but think if Chinese visitors head to Tasmania for a few days with the expectation that they will see a display like the one shown in the ad, the vast majority of them are going to come away disappointed.