Summer Sporting Extravaganza to Boost Australian Economy

In Australia, summer is all about sport. This season the addition of two major international events to the calendar is a big bonus, not just for sports lovers but for the economy as well.

Australians who don't enjoy sport turn off the television and head for the beach at this time of year.

For everyone else, there's a smorgasbord of Test and one-day cricket, PGA golf, an internationally famous yacht race, a grand slam tennis event, cycling and Formula One races.

The country is set to enjoy an unprecedented quantity of world sport worth an estimated A$320m ($267m; £172m) to the economy thanks to the addition of two major events.

The Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup - being held across five cities in January - and the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup, which will be played in Australia and New Zealand in February and March, eclipse other events in size and dollar value.

The Asian Cup is the biggest sporting event in Asia and the cricket World Cup is the third biggest sporting event in the world after the summer Olympics and the FIFA World Cup.

Australia's summer of sport

• December 9 - January 10: Four cricket Test matches, Australia v India.
• December 11-14: Australian PGA golf Royal Pines Resort, Gold Coast.
• December 26-30: Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
• January 9 - January 31, 2015: Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup.
• January 16 - February 1: Cricket one-day international tri series, Australia, India and England.
• January 17-25: Tour Down Under cycling classic, Adelaide and South Australia.
• January 19 - February 1: Australian Open grand slam tennis, Melbourne.
• February 14 - March 29: ICC World Cup.
• March 12-15: Australian Grand Prix Formula One, Melbourne.

Every year, between 1 December and 1 April, there are five million tickets on sale for sport and entertainment events across New South Wales, according to state government body Destination NSW. For the same period in 2014-2015, there are eight million tickets on sale.

"That's what happens when you add an Asian Cup and a World Cup to the calendar," says Asian Cup chief executive officer Michael Brown. "There's going to be a lot more people spending a lot more dollars."

Test Cricket

Australia's golden summer begins with the first of four Test cricket matches between Australia and India on 9 December. The fixtures were rescheduled to start later in the month because of the sudden death in late November of 25-year old Australian Test player Phillip Hughes.

Golf

The first Test now clashes with the Australian PGA golf event, while the Sydney to Hobart yacht race - which organisers claim is the largest spectator sporting event in the world - competes with the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

An estimated one million spectators will watch the start of the yacht race - about 300,000 of them from the water and another 700,000 lining Sydney's harbour and coastline, says chief executive officer of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, Mark Woolf.

Economic Ipmact

The economic impact, however, is incalculable, says Mr Woolf, because it is a free spectator event.

"The metrics that come out of this race are enormous," he says. "It's not a stadium event. We don't have a captive audience. But there are tentacles everywhere.

"There's the investment of transporting and accommodating 118 boats and crew for the start. The crews bring their friends and families. Then there's provisioning and fuelling and self-catering for spectator picnics.

"Even the NSW town of Eden gets an economic lift. It's the last safe harbour for boats to refuel and restock before crossing Bass Strait. Once they reach Hobart the boats and crews have to get back to Sydney.

"Then there's the impact of those TV pictures of a perfect Sydney harbour beaming into Europe and America in the middle of winter on their Christmas night. It's hard to quantify the publicity and future tourism impact."

Asia Cup Soccer

As the Test cricket ends the Asian Cup kicks off on 9 January, with 16 teams playing 32 matches in Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.

According to Mr Brown, PricewaterhouseCoopers has said the event will pump A$225m into the economy. Asian Cup organisers target ticket sales of 500,000, with 50,000 international visitors expected to attend.

Three of Australia's top ten trading partners - China, Japan and South Korea - have qualified, which means hosting the Asia Cup is a unique tourism, trade and investment opportunity for the country and the region, he says.

"The Asian Cup is Asia's biggest sporting event and football is the biggest team sport and the most popular sport in Asia," Mr Brown says. "In Asia, football outstrips cricket as a sport."

Tourism Tsunami

But the Asian Cup will also have to compete for spectators and TV audiences with the Tour Down Under cycling classic in South Australia and the Australian Open grand slam tennis tournament in Melbourne.

ICC World Cup Cricket

Then, the biggest sporting event of the summer begins on 14 February. More than one million people are expected to attend 49 one-day matches featuring 14 teams playing in the ICC World Cup at venues in Australia and New Zealand.

ICC World Cup chief executive officer John Harnden says 500,000 tickets have already been sold and tens of thousands of international spectators are expected to attend, creating a tourism tsunami between the two countries.

"There will be a lot of travel between Australia and New Zealand, and then India, the UK and the US are the three primary points of origin (for spectators)," says Mr Harnden.

"It is a great opportunity to showcase ourselves to the world and benefit from that great word of mouth from all those tens of thousands of tourists saying what a great time they had. If the Australian and New Zealand teams do well, that will be an even bigger bonus."

View Source

The Secrets Flight Attendants Want You to Know

WE’RE infatuated with life in the skies — and all the myth-busting that comes along with it. Who would’ve guessed that dim lights are meant to prep you for evacuation, or that those airline blankets aren’t always freshly washed?

Of course, nobody knows these secrets better than flight attendants. Abbie Unger, a longtime flight attendant (formerly employed by United, Continental and US Airways Express) who retired in 2011 to publish a book and launch a new career as a flight attendant consultant, tells all.

Coaching wannabe crew members through the rigorous application process, her Flight Attendant Career Connection is a Facebook Group where more than 7,000 members swap job advice, trade stories and discuss the ins and outs of a famously glamorous — and notoriously mysterious — industry.

Here, a few secrets your flight attendant may be burning to tell you:

It’s not a flight attendant’s job to look nice.

A 1957 stewardess manual lists requirements that crew members remain unmarried and under 57 kilograms. 

Flight attendants wore girdles as late as the 1970s, and reports regular weigh-ins seem to have left their mark on the profession. But in her experience, Unger says, today’s airlines focus less on looks. “They do want someone who is pleasant to look at,” she told us. “But you don’t have to be a supermodel. You have to be open and engaging — it really has to do with personality.”

Passengers do not need to panic during turbulence.

Flight attendants have flown enough to know that turbulence-related injuries can occur but are uncommon. Unger advises buckling up and riding it out. “Turbulence is like going down a bumpy road,” she says. “If you’re in your seatbelt, you’re not in danger.”

Listen to the safety instructions of flight attendants and don’t panic

But if you see your flight attendant sitting down, you should definitely sit down.

That being said, Unger says looking at the crew is a sure-fire way to tell if the bumpiness has potential to harm you. Flight attendants will often move around the cabin during mild bumps, but they’ll stay seated if they know things are going to get intense.

2013 Delta flight attendant job seekers faced tougher acceptance odds than Harvard applicants.

In 2013, Delta received about 44,000 applications for about 400 flight attendant job openings — that’s a lower acceptance rate than Harvard’s. 

Unger says this year’s Delta recruitment is looking just as tough — she estimates there will be about 200,000 applications for 1800 open spots. “This is a dream for a lot of people,” she explains.

If you really want to tip your flight attendant, try asking three times.

Unger says passengers often assume flight attendants make a lot of money, but “it’s not a very good wage at all.” Many airlines discourage tipping, she explains, and advise that crew members turn down a passenger’s first attempt at offering a tip. 

Try a second or third time, though, and your flight attendant will feel freer to accept. “Or just put it in an envelope and leave it on your seat,” Unger says.




Flight attendants are there to make your trip enjoyable.

Your flight attendant can make you less nervous.

Flight attendants tend to know what every bump, lurch and strange sound means for the plane, whether it’s a harmless bout of turbulence or the squeaky landing gear doing its regular job. 

And attendants would love to share this information with fliers, if they ask. “If you’re nervous, let your flight attendant know,” Unger says. “I’d be happy to have a conversation so you know you’re not alone.”

If your flight attendant turns quiet, it’s to run through emergency scenarios.

Just before takeoff, Unger says, flight attendants are often required to take 30 seconds to run through their safety training, reviewing what will happen should anything go wrong during the trip. “Your flight attendant may be chatting with you, but she’ll stop and be quiet or just look out the window,” Unger explains. “She’s thinking about what she would do in an emergency.”

Airplane food feeds more than just passengers.

After passengers have been served, Unger says the cabin crew will sometimes eat leftover first-class meals. The best part? “There’s ice cream on lots of international flights.”

Flight attendants eat plane food too

Water is the cure for your jet lag.

Simple hydration is a flight attendant’s number-one hack to feeling and looking refreshed after a long haul, Unger says. She recommends filling a mega-size bottle and keeping it at hand during your trip.

This article originally appeared in The Huffington Post