Not such a grand old Oprah after all

Oprah Winfrey visited Australia nine months ago. Source: The Daily Telegraph

NINE months after Oprah Winfrey and friends blitzed Australia, US visits here dwindled to their lowest ebb in almost a decade.

American visitor arrivals dipped below 30,000 in September the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveals - a drop of almost 23,000 since Oprah's visit.

Earlier this year the Herald Sun revealed Victorians paid $650,000 to treat Oprah and her 100 guests to our best food, hotels and tours for three days last December.

But the hoped-for Oprah-inspired tourism surge has not eventuated.

Thanks largely to the parlous state of the US economy and the strong Australian dollar, the number of US visits in September was well below the 52,600 US arrivals last December.

Some 29,800 US citizens came here in September - the lowest September total since 2005 and the quietest month on record since May 2007.

Despite the drop off in US visitors, Melbourne Airport continues to see more international passengers, with 554,163 arrivals in September, up 6.8 per cent on last year.

This growth is driven largely by Asia, with visits from China and the Philippines.