Australia will feel the benefits of Oprah Winfrey's visit for several years to come, tourism operators say.
The American TV star's visit will cost Australian taxpayers more than three million dollars, and many have been wondering if it's worth it. Tourism Australia has no doubts.
"The Oprah Winfrey Show is broadcast to 215 networks in the USA and to 140 networks around the world," Andrew McEvoy from Tourism Australian told SBS.
"Forty-million American viewers alone watch it and they won't put a number on the global audience, but it's big".
When you think about the $180 million spent on the 'So where the bloody hell are you' tourism campaign, or the $50 million spent in a co-promotion with Baz Luhrman's film Australia, it's a business decision that starts to make sense.
"Twenty-five percent of the world's wealth is in America," Harold Mitchell from the Mitchell Communications group said.
They are tourists and the biggest problem Americans have about Australia is that they confuse it with Austria.
"This will make Australia a place all on its own, it's just that good".
Harold Mitchell likened Oprah's visit to another famous moment in Australian celebrity hysteria.
"Oprah is as big as Australia could get. I had to think and go back to where it might have been as big and some might remember the Beatles in 1964. It's just as big as that".
"There is something magic about Oprah, just as there was then".
It is hard to quantify exactly how much Australia will gain, but experts are all convinced the money the government spent won't go to waste.
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