QUEENSLAND'S prostitution taskforce will crack down on 'balcony boobies' at this weekend's Gold Coast 600 motorsport carnival.

With an estimated 200,000 people expected to flood Surfers Paradise over the weekend, police will also launch Operation Seymour Mark II, a three-day blitz against crime on the Gold Coast.

Speaking to the media this morning, Gold Coast District Superintendent Paul Ziebarth said the prostitution squad would be out in force in Surfers Paradise for the turbo-charged revhead festival, which gets under way tomorrow.

In previous years, high-rise balcony parties featuring topless or naked waitresses and sometimes explicit sex acts, have attracted serious complaints.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has previously said such acts would not be tolerated and Supt Ziebarth this morning confirmed police would be on the look-out for any anti-social behaviour taking place on high-rise balconies.

He warned those guilty of lewd behaviour could face heavy fines as well as eviction from their apartments.

Seymour II follows on from the successful zero-tolerance operation which finished last month.

The original Operation Seymour was launched after a crime-wave of armed hold-ups on the Gold Coast, including the tragic shooting death of Coomera detective Damian Leeding.

SOUTH America is emerging as one of the hottest destinations for next year, with tour operators struggling to keep up with strong demand from Australians looking for new destinations, adventure and value. The spotlight has been on Peru following the 100th anniversary of the rediscovery of Machu Picchu this year and improved flight connections are also making it easier than ever to get there.

LAN Airlines now offers daily flights to Santiago in Chile from Sydney or Auckland, while Qantas will begin flying from Sydney to Chile three times a week in March.

LAN is also improving connections from Santiago to Lima in Peru and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and plans to improve its links to Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Contiki, best known for offering holidays to Europe for 18 to 35-year-olds, begins tours to South America next month in response to feedback in post-tour surveys and on social networking sites such as Facebook.The tours have proven so popular Contiki has sold out until April and is being forced to add extra departures.


"We have been in Asia for three years now and and it's been a booming success that product model of small group touring and authentic local experiences using local transport is growing at the speed of light," consumer marketing and brand manager Deanna Marrocco said.

"It's how people want to travel in these destinations."

Trafalgar is also launching its more relaxed At Leisure program, which has been a big success in Europe, in South America for the first time next year.

It has also begun offering Be My Guest dining experiences, inviting guests into the homes of locals to experience authentic homemade cuisine.

APT is also reintroducing tours to South America next year after withdrawing in 2009 because of the global financial crisis.

Its restructured program includes 16 itineraries and it was forced to add three extra departures a few months after launching its brochure in April because of the strong response.

Ted Dziadkiewicz of Contours Travel, which specialises in trips to South America, said "voluntourism" was also becoming increasingly popular.

Its new Heritage Trails of Sacred Valley of the Incas tour includes a visit to Australian Jane Gavel's organisation Peru's Challenge, which helps build schools and sustainable communities in Peru, and guests can choose to stay longer and work on the projects.

The cruise market is also soaring, with a growing number of specialist cruise itineraries including the Amazon River and the Chilean fjords.

Peregrine has introduced four new cruise itineraries in the Galapagos Islands to help reduce the environmental impact on the fragile ecosystem, and is offering a new 10-day Highlights of Argentina tour.

Foodies are also increasingly discovering South America, with World Expeditions offering a new one-off culinary trip to Peru led by Crave Sydney Food Festival director Joanna Savill in November.

IT'S the island getaway that you can take with you, everywhere. Plans for a futuristic floating island have been unveiled, featuring helipads, swimming pools and thrusters to power it along.

Presented at the Monaco Yacht Show, “Project Utopia” will offer guests 11 accommodation decks and a 360-degree observation area.

Spanning the length of a cruise ship, each leg is supported by a thruster to keep the yacht island stable in the extreme seas.

Below deck has enough room to house shops, bars and restaurants, covered by a retractable canopy, said creators BMT and Yacht Island Design.

The company has not yet put a figure on how much the floating island might cost, but it’s bound to strike a chord with the Dr Evils of the world.


The news comes as the Maldives announced plans to build a floating golf course.

Featuring 18 holes connected by underwater tunnels, the course will be made up of several islands floating in the Indian Ocean, which will contain two or three holes each.

Earlier this year, designs for a lavish yacht recreating the billionaire's playground of Monaco was unveiled.

The super-ship will feature smaller versions of the state’s famous landmarks such as the Monte Carlo Casino and racetrack, as well as swimming pools, tennis courts, a cinema, a go kart track and a Hotel de Paris.

AUSTRALIANS are the world's biggest spenders on holidays and the UK is still our preferred destination, a new survey has revealed. Aussies forked out an average of $3715 a trip, almost double the global average spend on holiday of $1507, according to Visa's latest Global Travel Intentions Survey.

And they're not expected to ease off, with the research predicting travel budgets will remain above $3562 for the next two years.

The global average spend, meanwhile, is only expected to rise to $1928.

Despite the gloomy economic outlook, Australians plan to make at least three international trips between now and 2013, the survey revealed, and intend to spend an average of 16 nights on their next holiday.

The UK remains the most popular destination, with almost a third of Australian respondents (30 per cent) earmarking it as a likely holiday spot in the next two years.


"Of those who want to visit the UK, 27 per cent said they are likely to attend a sporting event," Visa's Ross Jackson said.

"The upcoming London 2012 Olympic Games could be a pull factor and it is an indication that sport tourism is proving to be a growing attraction for today's travellers".

The US ranked a close second (26 per cent), followed by New Zealand (21 per cent).

The survey of almost 12,000 people across 23 countries also found that almost half (47 per cent) intended to arrange their trips themselves by booking directly with hotels and airlines.

The internet has become the preferred travel research tool, with 55 per cent choosing it over more traditional means.

SO there I was, sitting on a towel under the scorching Australian sun. One of my travel buddies was next to me reading a book, the other sleeping. Our favourite album was on the stereo and there wasn’t another soul around, save for the odd squawk of a native bird.

Sounds like the perfect holiday experience, eh? So why were all three of us in fear of our lives? There was no doubt in our minds it was all Kylie’s fault.

You see, “Kylie” was our 1988 Holden Commodore and she had just stopped “doing the locomotion” halfway down a deserted dirt road somewhere in the South Australian outback. My travel buddies and I were sitting by the roadside watching a plume of steam gush out of the radiator.

We’d picked her up on Parramatta Rd in Sydney for a couple of thousand dollars. Naming her Kylie was easy – she had some distinct similarities with the diminutive singer. Like the real thing, our Kylie was an ‘80s hit and had a lovely undercarriage, but she was also a little past her prime.

Nonetheless we’d done our homework and had followed the rules for buying a travel car:

DO Make sure the car showroom/lot has a good rep. Ask around with other travellers to find out who offers the best deal. Some dealers who sell regularly to travellers even have “buy-back” policies.

DO Insist on a logbook. If you’re buying an older car, make sure it has an up-to-date logbook so you can see who’s owned it and how often it was serviced.

DO Take someone who knows something about cars with you when buying. There’s bound to be someone you meet who knows about motors, so buy them a slab of beer and get them to give your purchase the once over before you part with your cash.

DON’T Take a risk. If the price is too good to be true, then it usually is and if the car doesn’t look like it will go the distance, it probably won’t. Sometimes spending a bit more can pay off in the long-term

DON’T Kick the tyres of a car in the lot. It’s what everyone who knows nothing about cars does, and shows you up to be a rookie car buyer.

So what happened? Why had our Kylie let us down? Buying her to explore Australia was the highlight of our trip.

She was our fourth travel buddy; she was someone we spoke to frequently, she looked after us and we did the same in return. Her relationship with each member of the group was as important as any of the human relationships we’d forged – we knew we had to look after Kylie in order for her to look after us.

So I’m convinced our outback car trouble happened because while we took all precautions before buying her, we’d forgotten the first rule when out on the road. There’s no quicker way to cause a breakdown than calling your car a “piece of sh*t, useless rust bucket”. It’s like they can hear you.

Seven hours by the side of the road in the blazing sun gave us ample time to think about how Kylie was teaching us this valuable lesson.

By stranding us on a road that was surely only frequented by serial killers, she was reminding us she was as part of the road trip as any of her passengers. With Wolf Creek still fresh in our minds, we were petrified about what kind of local would drive past and “rescue” us.

In the end, it was a middle-aged school teacher who helped get Kylie to a service station. He had all his teeth, didn’t laugh maniacally for no reason or have a giant knife on his belt. But I’m sure he was big fan of Kylie.

HOLIDAY hot-spots around the world are becoming more affordable for Aussies due to the strong dollar - so where are the best places to score a bargain? Surprisingly, Turkey has soared to the top of the Expedia NAB Travellers’ Foreign Currency Ranking, which measures the performance of the Australian dollar over the past year to find the top 10 value-for-money locations.

In fact, the Australian dollar has appreciated by more than 22 per cent against the Turkish Iira.

Tanzania, which failed to make the previous Expedia list in April, was the second most affordable destination, with the dollar climbing by 18 per cent against Tanzania's shilling.

The Aussie dollar also performed well in Asia, jumping 16 and 12 per cent respectively against the popular holiday spots of Vietnam and Thailand. This year’s result was weaker for Vietnam, which was found to be the most affordable destination in the previous survey.

The dollar also rose by 11 per cent against the Hong Kong dollar, and three per cent against the Singaporean dollar.

Meanwhile the US scraped into the top 10, with the Aussie dollar rising 10 per cent against the Greenback. Travellers are already taking advantage of the situation, with bookings to the US increasing by 41 per cent.

While the Euro and the British Pound failed to make the list, they still offer reasonable value for travellers. In the past year the Australian dollar appreciated eight per cent against the Pound and four per cent against the Euro.

“It’s a very exciting time to be an Aussie travelling overseas because our currency is at near-record highs against, not only the US Dollar, but many of the world’s major and minor currencies,” Amee Evans from Expedia said.

Many Australians are already taking advantage of the strong dollar, with overseas departures now at a near-record high - increasing more than 10 per cent in the seven months to July, according to the latest Bureau of Statistics figures.

Top 10 best value destinations
1. Turkey (lira) +22%
2. Tanzania (shilling) +18%
3. Vietnam (dong) +16%
4. Argentina (peso) +14%
5. Thailand (baht) +12%
6. Iceland (krona) +11%
7. Hong Kong (dollar) +11%
8. US (dollar) +10%
9. Pakistan (rupee) +10%
10. Philippines (peso) +9%

WAYNE Swan has been named the world's best treasurer, according to a statement last night confirming one of Canberra's worst kept secrets. The judgement was made by the distinguished magazine Euromoney, the same publication which gave the accolade to Paul Keating in 1984.

Few Australians subscribe to Euromoney, but the Government will make sure as many voters as possible hear about its appraisal of the Treasurer, and the Opposition will be invited to congratulate him.

Wayne Swan will receive his award as Euromoney Finance Minister of the Year next Sunday in Washington where he will be attending World Bank and IMF meetings.

Last night he accepted it as "a real tribute to the millions of ordinary Australians whose hard work and resilience have made our economy one of the strongest in the developed world''.

"Our first priority has always been jobs with decent pay and conditions,'' Mr Swan said in a statement.

"There's an extra 750,000 Australians bringing home a pay packet since we were elected and that's what Labor governments are all about.''

Euromoney said Mr Swan had been given the award "for his careful stewardship of Australia's finances and economic performance, both during and since the global financial crisis''.

But the magazine made clear it didn't think Mr Swan had single-handedly saved the nation's finances.

"Swan has undoubtedly been blessed with a number of advantages, including inheriting a sound economy and the natural resources bounty that has allowed Australian trade with China in particular to boom.

But he was credited with the correct strategy during the global financial crisis of 2007-08.

The magazine applauded his "swift response to stimulate the economy'' despite "strong opposition at home'' and said he had "succeeded in getting most of the important decisions right'.

"These include putting in place an exit strategy for the stimulus and sticking to it, imposing a fiscal discipline that many other finance ministers refusing to adopt,'' said the magazine's citation of Mr Swan.

"Swan continued to deliver this strong and steady performance despite political difficulties at home, in which his Labor Party only has the smallest possible majority through the support of independent MPs.''

It said he joined a "roll-call of leading finance ministers, including Jim Flaherty of Canada and Alexei Kudrin of Russia.

But coalition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey said it was hard to take the award seriously.

"Mr Swan has racked up $154 billion of deficits, he's yet to deliver a budget surplus and has turned $45 billion in the bank into a $110-billion-dollar credit card bill," he said in the statement.

"The real recipient of this award should be Peter Costello, who laid the groundwork for Wayne Swan.

"If it wasn't for the heavy lifting done by the previous government, the Australian economy wouldn't be in the position it's in today."

In the latest edition alongside the article about Mr Swan is an alleged exchange between Mr Keating and the magazine's writer Eric Ellis, who said Mr Keating initially told him to just "f . . . off" after Mr Ellis called repeatedly for comment late at night on Mr Keating's personal phone.

It revealed Mr Costello simply replied to requests for comment with: "Good gag. Well done. It made me laugh.

Fellow Australians, have a look at http://www.ozdealz.info

It's new, it's fresh, and it's risk free!

WE'VE had the "rolled-gold disaster" of Lara Bingle, the "forgettable" outback commercials from Baz Lurhmann and the Oprah roadshow that is yet to see Americans beating down our doors. But Tourism Australia's latest campaign has a message for jeering Aussies: Put your money where your mouth is.

Managing director Andrew McEvoy said research had found 86 per cent of Australians think they could sell the country better than his organisation and he was going to let them.

“We have embraced that and we're going to let them do that job,” Mr McEvoy said.

“People in Australia understand the secrets of Australia - what’s behind that doorway and what’s down that lane - and I think that’s a very important story to tell. Every Australian has a role in this.”

He was speaking at the launch of the $2.5 million “Dream Team” campaign that offers an opportunity to win more than $300,000 in luxury holidays with five of your best mates providing you can come up with a decent slogan and photo.

The unprecedented giveaway will include trips for six people to resorts including Qualia on Hamilton Island, Wolgan Valley Resort in New South Wales, Great Southern Lodge on Kangaroo Island and Longitude 131 at Uluru.

It is the latest stage in the “There's Nothing Like Australia” campaign, which encourages Aussies to upload photos of their favourite secret holiday spots to the website www.nothinglikeaustralia.com.

This time Australians will be asked to enter photos and nominate five friends who they would take with them on holiday in the hope they will then share the news with them via email and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The integrated campaign will incorporate print, radio, television, digital and social media and is a further step away from campaigns which involve one big hit TV commercial.

The prize will include flights with sponsor Qantas, while Sony will give everyone who enters a $5 voucher.

Mr McEvoy said he was hoping to exceed the 30,000 photos submitted during last year's campaign.

In the face of a high dollar, Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson said the biggest challenge the industry faced was getting people to holiday at home.

“We need to get them to spend their dollars here in Australia,” he said.

Tourism Australia chairman Geoff Dixon said Australians weren't as aware of Australia's luxury tourism as they would like and it wanted to emphasise those experiences.

Luxury Lodges of Australia director James Baillie said Australia's top properties included rainforest retreats, beach resorts and luxury camps that rival the best in Africa.

Prizes will be given away every week until entries close on October 31.

To enter the competition, fill out the official entry form at www.nothinglikeaustralia.com.au and upload a photo of your favourite Australian holiday destination.

Also write a caption in 25 words or less saying why there's nothing like Australia.

The Tourism Research Australia's National Visitor Survey this week reported Australians are finally returning to travel in their own backyard, with the number of people holidaying domestically rising for the first time in four years

Despite a strong Australian dollar and recent natural disasters, the number of people taking local holidays is up four per cent in the year to June.

IT STARTED with the Grand Tour. In the 17th century, upper-class British children would finish their education by heading to Europe to experience museums, paintings and wines they'd only studied or read about in school. Fast-forward a couple of hundred years. Cheap flights have meant that even more people are taking a year off. Whether it's a gap year, an overseas experience, an exchange program, a working holiday or a sabbatical, a year out or a year off, people want to head off to India, Italy, Israel or a thousand places in between to see what the world is really like.

Get planning
Planning might sound boring but once you start buying guidebooks, imagining your itinerary and working out where to go, you'll feel like you're actually doing it.

Most travellers look at doing several stops, including a destination where they can work to get cashed up before heading out again.

You could decide to team with your best buddy or the love of your life to travel together, which may mean you'll have to plan an itinerary together.

A good alternative can be to look at doing some legs of your journey alone and meeting to travel together at certain points.

Paperwork
Paperwork is boring but important everyone's heard stories about travellers who get sent home because they didn't have the right visa or their passport had expired.

Passports are proof of your nationality and let you cross international borders.

When you're overseas, it's your main form of ID, with visas and entry stamps showing you have a legal right to be in a country.

Remember that every country could potentially require a visa. The best place to find out the latest rules is the embassy site of your destination and a good portal to many of these is Project Visa (projectvisa.com).

Money and costs
No one likes penny-pinching but saving money will let you travel longer. Some travellers go overboard with fixed budgets and "no splurge" rules, but we reckon you should use a budget as a guide only and give yourself a bit of room to enjoy your trip.

Good budgets allow for new possibilities and give you the chance to enjoy the odd bit of serendipity. And you could discover a few savings along the way or take a job to pay it off later.

Health and safety
Before you part with all that cash for a ticket, you should feel your destination is safe. The best way to do this is to research the destination and ask yourself if you're OK with the level of risk.

Once you've booked a ticket you'll need to make your pre-departure medical plans. At least six weeks before you go, you'll need to begin immunisations. As part of your packing regime, you'll need to start looking for a medical kit even if you're going somewhere safe it'll come in handy for accidental scrapes, unexpected colds and even hangovers.

Get packing
Everyone will have advice on what you should pack for your trip. Some people swear by sarongs (handy for wearing or making an emergency tent) while others need to bring their hair dryer and personal salon. It really just depends on your comfort level but it's universally agreed that travelling light is the best policy.

"Carry a fold-down bag. You'll often find yourself suddenly overloaded with unexpected purchases, gifts or acquisitions. This way you don't need to wreck your regular bag by overpacking it or have to buy a second bag. Mine folds down to about the size of a wallet."

- Tony Wheeler, co-founder of Lonely Planet

Take-off
On departure day you'll be preparing for some teary farewells, so make sure everything's organised before then:

• Every airline has a slightly different policy about what you can and can't take on the plane, but details are freely available on their website.
• Even in these days of e-tickets, you'll still need to confirm your flight.
• Airlines can take care of any passenger requests with a little advance notice.
• Give yourself plenty of time to get to the airport.
• Before you check in your bag, make sure it has a luggage label on it that lists your name, address, airline and flight number.

Touchdown
"Please adjust your tray tables as we are coming in to land" could there be a sweeter sound?

It means you're about to see the first glimpses of your destination.

Get out of the airport and check in to your accommodation while the adrenalin is on your side, because once the jet lag hits you'll just feel like crashing.

Booking ahead for the first night is a good idea, just so you know where you'll be heading and have something to put down on the immigration forms.

If you don't like the place, you can always move the next day.

Staying in touch
With the internet covering most of the world, reliable global telephone connections and postal services throwing millions of packages around the globe every day, modern travellers have no excuses for not letting their mothers know where they're going to be.

The best option is to choose a mode of communication and stick to it.

That way your parents won't be alarmed when they're not getting phone calls because you'll be updating them on your blog.

Before you choose, though, consider your destination.

There won't be much uploading of video in a remote village in Malawi but in teched-up Singapore everyone will be texting on the train.

Be a good traveller
It's easy enough to make sure your good time isn't making someone else's life tougher if you're aware of the culture you're visiting. Visiting another country means leaving your judgments at the airport and appreciating the difference.

It's easy to feel threatened or scared in a new environment but a bit of research before you go can prepare you for everyday encounters.

Another good way of helping out a country could be to volunteer there.

There's no doubt travel puts a strain on the environment but there's a lot you can do to look after the planet.

Start with offsetting the carbon of your flight and any other transport.

Coming home
First up, you have to prepare yourself for the idea that the home you left behind is gone.

Your friends will be doing new things, your town will have moved on and even your family might have changed.

But you've changed as well, probably for the better.

Everything you've seen and done has given you a better insight into the world.

Travellers look at their homes differently because they've been away, even if you don't notice it at first.

This is an edited extract from The Big Trip (2nd edition), Lonely Planet 2011. RRP $29.99.