Touristy Business

Everywhere you look in Australia there are tourists! If I had to make an  estimate, I would say that the ratio of tourists to actual residents is 80 to 20. Cairns is no exception to this statistic. People are drawn from all over the world to this beautiful tropics area for the wildlife, exotic foods, and stunning landscape, all of which are influenced by the release of Australian films that expose these things to the outer world.  These films portray a magical getaway to tropical paradise. I mean what tourist could resist sitting on the sandy beaches of private islands, holding a kaola or kangaroo, or snorkeling with little nemos in the Great Barrier Reef?

The strong presence of tourists was not all that surprising to me, but the nationalities of the tourists was a bit different than I expected. On our free day, a group of us took a trip to Green Island, an island about 30 minutes offshore of the main area of Cairns. On the boat to the island, our group was the only Americans! The rest were from places like Korea and Switzerland. Even some of the crew was international. 

The tourist industry would seem to be the only thing keeping places like Cairns up and running. On the first day we were in Cairns I went shopping. As I was making my purchase at a generic souvenir shop, the Australian store owner asked me where I was from, as she could tell my accent was not a local one! As I proceeded to tell her that I was from the USA, she said that she was so excited to have me and that “Cairns needed us!” The more I explored the city I began to understand her statement. On every street corner there are souvenir shops selling classic gifts that sport the Australian emblem on then. Without tourists the people of Cairns would not be able to survive and thrive as they are today!

-Kacy Nichols