That’s because then I’d be like a “teenager but with money”, as Peter Harbison of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation told me when we caught up for lunch in Sydney over the weekend.
Peter, you see, believes that the best years of your life are when you are in your 60s. Your kids, if you have them, are grown–up and giving you grandchildren for whom you have no direct responsibility.
You have time, and money, on your hands. And you don’t have to care too much about what anybody does or think anymore, the way you had to when you were starting out in your career.
My mother agrees. Recently, when we asked her which was the happiest time of her life, she said, “After I turned 60, no more responsibility.”
Another friend of mine, who also turned 60 recently, calls it “the age of irresponsibility”.
And so I wish I could be irresponsible and go visit all these wonderful new places I hear about whenever I attend this annual Australian tourism event instead of having to sit in my hotel room and writing about it.
I’d take a day trip to Bondi Beach to take surfing lessons from Wacca who runs “Let’s Go Surfing”. Wacca’s a new exhibitor in the Eastern module of ATE – his booth pictured here. 
(Yes, the event is still divided into East and West with us media and buyers from Asia scheduled for the first few days and then our counterparts from the Western world will move in. At the media briefing, our host said she would speak slowly to make sure we understood her.)
Anyway, I met Wacca at a lunch and he tells me he wants to reach new customers from the East. “People from Asia now just find us on the beach and walk into our store,” he said. “We’d like them to know about us beforehand through our website and through travel agents.”
He runs the only licensed surf school in Bondi and I can’t imagine a better location than this most iconic of beaches for his surf school. It takes a lifetime to learn to surf, he says but all you need is a minimum of two hours to learn to stand up on a surfboard, he promises.
After I learn to surf, I’d then go to the eco-certified Lady Elliott IslandEco-Resort, one of only three island resorts on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, and the only resort with direct flight access to the island airstrip.
Eco-certification seems to be a big trend at this ATE – it’s part of the accreditation scheme by Ecotourism Australia – and I spotted a few products that carried this certification.
After eco-certification, the other trend seems to be luxury. There’s the Karijini Eco Retreat in Western Australia, offering outback luxury, and then there’s Wild Bush Luxury which offers “unique, luxury bush camps” (picture, courtesy Wild Bush Luxury) in areas like Bamurru Plains, SalSalis Ningaloo Reef, Blue Mountains Private Safari, Arkaba Station and Arkaba Walking Safaris.
Andrew McEvoy, managing director of Tourism Australia, thinks it is high-end nature products like these that will change the game for Australian tourism.
No need for Integrated Resorts like those in Singapore, he says. “We need significant attractions that are distinctly Australian for the future. We are beginning to see more luxury lodges popping up and if we have enough of them to scale, this will set Australia apart.
“There’s nothing like nature, people and lifestyle in Australia and we need to accentuate those three elements in our developments,” he adds.
This is good news. By the time I get to be like a “teenager but with money”, there’ll be enough of these eco-certified luxury lodges and camps for me to experience.
I can’t wait.
