Oprah visit cost Aussies $6m

Oprah Winfrey and friends enjoyed free VIP visits to top attractions. Photo / Supplied

The seven-figure costs of Oprah Winfrey's visit to Australia might make New Zealanders hope she never drops by for a visit.

Australians forked out more than A$5 million ($6.3 million) for the tour by the multimillionare talkshow host and 92 of her closest friends, Australian Government figures show.

The tour in December, which took in Melbourne,

Queensland, Sydney and Uluru, was supposed to be a boost for Australian tourism.

The showcase was also a farewell from the popular host, who was ending her eponymous, decades-long television show.

But after Winfrey's Ultimate Australian Adventure aired in February, US visitor numbers actually dropped. Bureau of Statistics data shows they were down 0.8 per cent for the first five months of 2011 compared with the same period last year.

The bills for Winfrey's three-day trip to Melbourne have been obtained by the Herald Sun. They show:

* Winfrey's guests stayed at the Intercontinental Melbourne at The Rialto, with taxpayers forking out A$78,828 for their rooms, dining, mini-bar, room service and even long-distance phone calls.

* They dined in some of the city's best restaurants, including Rockpool, The Press Club, maze, The Point, The Langham and Daylesford's Lake House.

* They were given gold-class visits to the city's finest attractions, including A$60,000 for chopper flights to the Twelve Apostles, A$10,000 for hot air balloon trips and an almost A$14,000 visit to Domaine Chandon winery in the Yarra Valley.

Melbourne taxpayers also spent A$108,000 on a private dinner at Block Arcade to say goodbye to Winfrey and her entourage.

Victoria's Tourism Minister, Louise Asher, told the Herald Sun the money was well spent.

"If you calculate the equivalent advertising space [of] the Victorian part of her shows, which was seven minutes in total, the value of that is $4.2 million," Ms Asher said.

Taxpayers also contributed A$30,700 to fly 92 of Winfrey's audience and 21 crew and staff from Sydney to Melbourne.

They were also given an A$80,000-plus welcome party - a A$775-a-head event organised for Winfrey's audience guests and 49 others, including 19 Tourism Victoria staff.

Winfrey was given a welcome gift of a Nicola Cerini tote bag (A$12,915) containing a journal (A$2195) and Koko Black chocolates (A$1244).

Meanwhile, Winfrey's appearance in Federation Square cost almost A$160,000.

The campaign to bring Winfrey to Melbourne was so confidential that even former tourism minister Tim Holding was left in the dark. The visit had code names: "Operation Chicago", "Project O", "Project Oprah", "The O Project" and "December Project".

The released government documents revealed Holding did not realise Victoria would be paying for the visit until mid-September last year.

Winfrey's Harpo Productions had four producers flown in for their own five-star taste of what Victorian taxpayers were willing to offer to secure her endorsement.

- Staff reporter