Oprah Winfrey Audience Trip To Australia Will Cost Taxpayers Millions

Oprah Winfrey has another shock in store for the 300 fans she surprised earlier this week with tickets for an all-inclusive trip to Australia – she’s not paying for the vacation. The Queen of Talk’s offer to take her staff and 300 audience members Down Under will cost Tourism Australia about $2.7 million, Sydney’s The Age said Tuesday.

On Monday, the billionaire TV titan sent audience members into a frenzy when she announced she would be jetting all of them to The Outback to celebrate her 25th and final season of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

All 300 members of the crowd will be flown over to Sydney in December for a free trip while Winfrey shoots two episodes of her talk show at the city’s famed Opera House. The group’s airfare will be covered by Qantas, Australia’s national airline, the report said.

Despite a backlash from taxpayers, the state’s politicians insist the trip will attract huge amount of tourists to their shores.

“I think it’s money well spent. This truly represents an amazing opportunity to showcase Australia, the warmth and hospitality of our people and the depth and breadth of everything our country has to offer visitors from around the world. Tourism Australia is finally getting it together. We as a nation will win as a result of this coup,” Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson said in defense of the plan.

”There’ll be lots of other partners getting involved to help out too,” Andrew McEvoy, Managing Director of Tourism Australia, chimed in. “It will be a massive case of ‘all hands on deck’ to help show that there really is nothing like Australia….We’re not paying her to come and do it. We’re simply trying to make sure it doesn’t cost them any more to film the programs here than it would to film them in America.”