Tourism in Melbourne

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Flinders Street Station

Tourism in Melbourne, Australia, is an important industry with approximately 7.6 million domestic visitors and 1.88 million international visitors in 2004.^[1] Melbourne attracts a large numbers of tourists, particularly young backpackers^{[citation needed]}. The city has a large sports tourism industry, hosting a large number of spectator sports. In 2008, Melbourne overtook Sydney as the nation's leading tourism destination. ^[2]

1 Popular sites and events
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Popular sites and events

Popular sites and events include:

Federation Square Building

Eureka Tower and Yarra River

Royal Exhibition Building

State Library of Victoria

The Shrine of Remembrance

Melbourne Luna Park

Federation Square is a major meeting place in Melbourne given its close proximity to Flinders Street Station, the MCG and various other sporting and cultural complexes. The square is a collection of buildings housing NGV Australia and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image; as well as exhibition spaces, auditoria, restaurants, bars and shops. Concerts, cultural activities and various sporting gatherings are watched on the square's large electronic screen located in one of two public spaces. Adjacent to Federation Square is Birrarung Marr, a park on the banks of the Yarra.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground, known as "the MCG" or simply the "G" is Australia's largest sporting stadium by capacity. The MCG was the centerpiece stadium of the 1956 Summer Olympic Games and was renovated in preparation for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, creating a maximum capacity of 103,000. From April to September, there are typically one or two Australian rules football matches there per week. It has also hosted two Bledisloe Cup rugby matches. During the summer, major cricket matches including the Boxing Day test match and several one-day international games are played there.
Eureka Skydeck, is the highest viewing platform in the southern hemisphere and is located in Eureka Tower. Eureka Tower is the tallest residential building in the world. The observation deck includes a glass cube ride that projects three meters from the side of the building.
The Melbourne Observation Deck, located some 237 metres above the city streets on the 55th floor of the Rialto Towers, offers spectacular views of the central business district and beyond. The Rialto Towers is the second tallest building in Melbourne after Eureka Tower.
Melbourne Park is the home of the Australian Open tennis tournament. Held every January, it is one of the four Grand Slam tournaments.
The Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre is located in Southbank and was built in the 1990s as a replacement for the Royal Exhibition Building. It has hosted conventions and exhibitions since its opening.
The Melbourne Museum is located on the north-eastern fringe of the CBD, next to the Royal Exhibition Building. To many Melburnians, the most significant exhibit is the preserved body of Phar Lap, a famous racehorse of the Depression era. The Forest Gallery is a living internal facsimile replicating the forests of the nearby Dandenong Ranges. CSIRAC, the fifth electronic computer built and the only one of its generation to survive intact is also on display. The museum complex is also home to Melbourne's IMAX cinema.
The Royal Exhibition Building located in the Carlton Gardens was built in the 1880s for the World's Fair and is only one of a few such buildings that still exist. The building and gardens were granted World Heritage listing on 2 July 2004. It is the first building in Australia to be granted this status. The building also held the first sitting of the Australian Parliament on 9 May 1901. Subsequent federal parliamentary sittings were then moved to the Victorian Parliament building located in Spring Street and the Victorian government moved to the Exhibition Building.
The State Library of Victoria on Swanston Street, with its large Domed Reading Room and statue-filled front lawn.
The National Gallery of Victoria has recently been renovated, and has the largest art collection in Australia. The gallery is split over two sites, the Australian collection at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square (notably featuring key works from the Heidelberg School), and the NGV International collection housed in the recently renovated St Kilda Road building.
The Victorian Arts Centre at Southgate is a Melbourne landmark with its enormous skyward spire. It hosts Opera Australia's Melbourne season, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Theatre Company, the Australian Ballet Company, Chunky Move (one of Australia's best-known contemporary dance companies), and other touring productions. The centre consists of two separate buildings: the State Theatre; and Hamer Hall (this was recently re-named in honour of the late former premier Sir Rupert Hamer. The acoustics of the Centre are often favourably compared with those of its interstate rival, the opera theatre in the Sydney Opera House.
Crown Casino on the Yarra River boasts is the largest gambling centre in the southern hemisphere. The Crown Entertainment Complex also encompasses one of Melbourne’s best hotels the Crown Towers, restaurants, boutiques and cinemas. Crown also has the Palladium Ballroom which hosts some of Melbourne's biggest events, such as the Logies and the Brownlow Medal AFL award.
The Melbourne Aquarium contains a variety of exhibits showcasing marine wildlife found in the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic.
The Shrine of Remembrance on St Kilda Road is one of Australia's largest war memorials. It is the site of annual observances of ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day.
Docklands, Melbourne's newest precinct and largest infrastructure development to date, is also becoming a major attraction. The Docklands area opens up the waterfront to the CBD and is projected to attract millions of visitors every year. Telstra Dome; the Southern Star Observation Wheel; public art displays and several dining precincts can be found in Docklands.
Luna Park Melbourne, an amusement park located on the foreshore of Port Phillip Bay in St Kilda, Victoria, which is an inner suburb of Melbourne, Australia. It opened in 1912 and has been operating since. It is the first of two Luna Parks still operating in Australia; the other is on Sydney Harbour.

See also: Tall buildings in Melbourne

[edit] Restaurants

Melbourne's restaurants are numerous and major restaurant strips can be found throughout the city and its surrounding areas.

Chinatown, on Little Bourke Street and now spreading out onto Russell Street in the CBD, offers numerous restaurants, mainly but not exclusively offering Cantonese cuisine, at the lower end offering Hong Kong-style noodle restaurants up to the Flower Drum, renowned for its Peking Duck and is generally regarded as Melbourne's best restaurant.
Lygon Street, in the inner-northern suburb of Carlton, offers a selection of mainly Italian-influenced food.
Brunswick Street in inner-suburban Fitzroy used to be a grungy hotbed of students, musicians, actors and the like, and still retains some remnant of that edginess with the presence of several live music venues, all manner of eclectic stores, accompanied by restaurants and cafes, many of which serve varied and contemporary menus.
Chapel Street, south of the city is a popular destination for fashionable clothes shopping, eating and entertainment. The long street contains commercial areas providing goods and services for local residents. Chapel Street intersects with Toorak Road, itself offering entertainment, food and shops.
Glenferrie Road, east of the city in inner suburban Malvern has a wide mix of different cuisines including Indian, Malaysian, Thai and Japanese. The street intersects with High Street in Armadale which also has a mix of antique shops, cafes and restaurants.
Glenhuntly Road, south east of the city in inner suburban Elsternwick is a busy strip that offers a wide range of different restaurant cuisines including Chinese, Malaysian Indian, Thai, and some Middle Eastern cuisines.
Nelson Place faces the water in Williamstown, and is especially popular for lazy weekend breakfasts and lunches. There are restaurants and cafes featuring the usual range of cuisines, and footpath tables outside many of the establishments.

[edit] Cafes and nightlife

Melbourne by night

Melbourne contains all manner of pubs, bars, and nightclubs. The CBD contains a wide variety of venues, from the ubiquitous faux-Irish pubs and more traditional Aussie hotels, through some very upmarket wine bars, serious jazz venues on Bennetts Lane, fashionable nightclubs and dance venues (where the Melbourne Shuffle was born), are often hidden away down obscure grungy alleys.

The restaurant strips, particularly Brunswick Street have their own bars, some of which are the best rock venues in Melbourne. King Street, on the southern side of the CBD, was traditionally a nightclub strip and still hosts several, but many are now exotic dancing venues. Chapel Street, Prahran, is perhaps the trendiest, most upmarket nightlife strip. Bayside St Kilda is the home of several huge music venues including the famous Esplanade Hotel (known as 'the Espy'), the Prince of Wales, and The Palace.

The recent influx of city-dwellers has given rise to the numerous underground bars and sidewalk cafes in the alleys between Flinders Street - Flinders Lane and Bourke Street - Lonsdale Street. Notable alleys include Block Arcade/Block Place, Degraves Street, and Hardware Lane.

Other prominent cafe strips include:

St Kilda's Fitzroy Street, Carlisle Street and Acland Street are home to many popular cafes.
Fitzroy's Brunswick Street
South Yarra's Chapel Street
Collingwood's Smith Street
Richmond's Bridge Road
Southbank's Southgate and Crown Casino.

Melbourne also has a vibrant gay community, with gay and gay-friendly bars across the city. It is mostly concentrated on two gay villages - Commercial Rd, South Yarra and Smith St, Collingwood, but there are also gay bars and clubs in St Kilda, Fitzroy, Richmond and Yarraville.

[edit] Close to Melbourne

There are a variety of interesting things to see outside Melbourne proper but still within a day trip of Melbourne:

The Yarra valley region, producer of high-quality wine and with beautiful rainforest scenery nearby.
The Mornington Peninsula, with its wineries, beaches and the Arthurs Seat lookout.
The Surf Coast near Geelong, with excellent surf beaches and the spectacular views of the Great Ocean Road (Voted the world's best road trip in 2003).
Ballarat, a small city once the centre of the gold rush and site of the Eureka Stockade.
Bendigo.
Phillip Island, home of the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, also has one of the few easily-accessible colonies of little penguins.
French Island in Western Port Bay
Geelong, 80 km down the Princes Hwy is the gateway to many of Australia's tourist destinations such as the Great Ocean Road, Twelve Apostles and Bells Beach. Geelong is famous for its world class waterfront on on Corio Bay. One of the largest waterfront redevelopments ever undertaken in Australia, Waterfront Geelong includes Cunningham Pier with its Smorgy's restaurant, a Carousel Pavilion, and the art-deco bathing area at Eastern Beach.
Gippsland region, home of the Gourmet Deli Tours, the Gippsland Lakes, Wilsons Promontory (with South Point, the most southerly point of the Australian mainland), and many picturesque towns such as Sale,Foster, Bairnsdale, Lakes Entrance, and Warragul - one of the richest dairy farming areas in Australia. The ghost town of Walhalla is filled with goldmining memorabilia.
Mount Dandenong is famous for the Puffing Billy steam train and the view of the sun setting over Melbourne.