What do tourists come to see near or in your home town? Is there anything worth pulling the backpackers off the beaten track for an overnighter? What's the highlite? Anyone got a giant shrimp or an 80 foot ball of twine or a great Barrier Reef?

The World famous Farnborough Airshow. Go on, now tell me you haven't heard of it.

Hong Kong harbour, which has the Star Ferry running day and night , every sort of boat imaginable, and is never still. I always get a catch in my throat when I cross the harbour on the ferry. It still only costs 2 HK$ and is the best ride ever.There are other wonders in HK , but that's the best.

Used to live about 3 miles from Stonehenge when I was knee high to a sperm cell.

Now?....................er...............The North Sea?

wez

The biggest attraction around these parts is probably the Mormon trail wheel ruts. Yep. Wheel ruts, carved in stone. At least 3 feet deep, and caused by thousands of wagons being drawn single file during the 19th century Mormon migration.
Besides cows and coyotes and antelope, that's about it.

Because I live in a suburb of the Twin Cities, Mall of America is a big attraction for many people. Why tourists would travel thousands of miles to go to what is essentially a really big, expensive mall is beyond me. In its defense, it is a really nice area with plenty of stores and attractions. People that actually live here don't go there on a regular basis- we prefer smaller malls.

People who come to my town usually want to know "where's Barak's house?"

I guess the largest tourist attraction in the area depends on the times.

On Labor Day, there is a huge West Indian-American Carnival that brings many to the area.

Other much smaller festivals bring in tourists. A couple of days ago was Haiti's Flag Day so that attracted several Haitians and Haitian-Americans from elsewhere.

Right now, I think it's the Brooklyn Botanic Garden that is the largest attraction.

This month is Rose Month so there are tourists going there to do whatever it is tourists do during Rose Month.

During the winter, many tourists were asking for directions to the Brooklyn Museum of Art so that may be the area's largest winter tourist attraction.

The BMA is the museum that made all the controversy several years back when there was an exhibit showing a dung adorned Virgin Mary.

When you live in a small island which has tourism as one of its main industries I guess it is hard to name one attraction above another, if I had to choose just one then it has to be a medieval castle.

Click here to view the castle

Sue, I've watched the video of where you live and there are so many places that I'd like to visit!
Bertho - Apart from the fabulous! sports teams we have here in Leicester we also have one of the best preserved Roman Bath House remains in the UK and The National Space Centre. I suppose you could say best of the old and new and just about everything in between.(Leicester being the oldest place name according to Guinness Book of Records)
Can I advertise please? http://www.leicester.gov.uk/departments/page.asp?pgid=180
(and no money changed hands) - Leicester is full of historical sites if you care to look!

It would be great to have something of historical value around here like a Stonehenge, but apart from a few heritage buildings there isn't much (Oz is only 5 minutes old after all). There isn't a lot in Brisbane. There are theme parks 45 minutes south, Sea World, Movie World, Dream World and plenty of natural attractions like the beaches, rainforests and Moreton Bay with its many Islands. To the north there's more beaches, a big pineapple, Steve Irwin and Fraser Island. Fraser has grown as an attraction in the last few years due to hordes of back packers and tourists coming to see the Humpback whales which come into the Sandy Straits to breed. Then of course there's tourists that just come to see the backpackers.

Fosse4,

UK and National Space Centre
Fish and Bicycles
Am I making my point here?

Quote:

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From Bertho To the north ... Steve Irwin

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Geez, bertho, what more could you want?

I'm not far from a town called White Cliffs which is an old opal mining town. Most people live undergound and it has some great characters up there.

Tielhard, if a copy of the Eiffel Tower and a Roller Coaster are tourist attractions (LOL and very much tongue in cheek! The Fylde Coast is well worth a visit!) then I think I can claim our historic sites as tourist attractions.

We have a little bridge and an opera house. Paying customers like to climb over one, and graffiti artists recently climbed over the other.
Also one of the greatest harbours in the world, which most weekends, is chockers with cruise boats, small sailing boats, giant liners, Navy ships and water. We are not called the Harbour City for nothing...

To the west there is the Blue Mountains National Park which is quite pretty when it is not going up in flames.

The Indianapolis Speedway is about an hour from here. I heard there's going to be a race there soon.

I'm about 15 miles from Dealy Plaza in Dallas. When I drive through either going into or out of downtown, there are always people looking around, even at night. In my home of Arlington, Six Flags over Texas is the featured attraction.

Baron, I live just down I-20 east of you. I'm taking the kids to Six Flags and Hurricane Harbor in a few weeks.

We mostly have casino boats, the Independence Bowl, and festivals, festivals, festivals. Just wrapped up the Holiday in Dixie festival which included a great airshow at the Barksdale Air Force base and getting ready for the extremely popular Mudbug Festival. It draws huge out-of-town crowds every year and usually is headlined by a big act like Charlie Daniels Band or Kenny Wayne Shephard. It's a lot of fun.

I've got a HUUUUUUGE rock (albeit 465 km away) while closer to home we have the Henley-on-Todd boat races (dry river bed) and the Camel Cup.

hehe, when I saw your name next to a post in this thread, Exit, I thought "she has THE biggest tourist attraction near(ish) by" .

I live in Perth and it's hard to choose just one tourist attraction - we have a lot to offer!

My favourite is probably Caversham Wildlife Park. Yes, I know none of you have ever heard of it but it's great. I take in quite a few exchange students and we always take them there so that the kids can pet the kangaroos, koalas etc. The people that run the park go out of their way to ensure that the overseas students get "up close and personal" with the animals so that they take home some wonderful memories of their trip down under.

Copago - what happened to the No name calling -Pots and Kettles? (LOL)
Mothergoose - do they also get close and personal with the Funnel Webs? Seriously I would love to visit the Zoo, Copago, MotherGoose, Sue and all of the rest of you and have you take me round your locale. I know from experience that things we take for granted in my home town are found to be very interesting by visitors.