Australia's New Tourism Slogan: "Piss Off"

Heh. The government has been warning everyone to stay away from Sydney during September's APEC meeting, repeatedly highlighting the draconian police measures that will be in place. Now it seems even the delegates are heeding the warning!

Park Hyatt general manager Marlene Poynder said her hotel had suffered a 50 per cent drop in delegate bookings for the summit

"We don't have a leg to stand on," she said. "We've had to forecast our figures for the month. We are a small hotel with only 158 rooms so we are not knocked around as much. I know of some hotels who have 500 to 600 rooms free."

I can't help wondering if our Keystone Cops treatment of Dr Haneef will have any impact on this. I mean, would YOU trust the security of your country's top officials to the AFP clowns, given what we have seen? If you were an Indian official with distant cousins, for example, would you really want to make the trip?