International broadcaster CNN has listed WA as a top 2023 travel destination, recommending coastal town Exmouth as a prime spot to view April’s solar eclipse.

January 7, 2023

Global news broadcaster CNN has listed Western Australia among its top travel destinations for 2023, declaring the opportunity to view an upcoming solar eclipse in one of the state’s best known natural resort towns a “wonder” to be witnessed.

The network’s travel writers say the April 20 eclipse is best seen from Exmouth, which lies in the direct path of the celestial event and where a three-day Dark Sky Festival will be held to celebrate it.

“There will be outdoor viewing platforms where spectators can safely watch the solar miracle,” CNN said in an article posted on its website on January 2.

The festival will also offer music performances and astronomy tutorials.

WA’s Margaret River wine region and “quokka-covered” Rottnest Island are also recommended as top spots to spend time, as are the Kimberley region and Great Victoria and Great Sandy deserts.

CNN’s other top global travel destinations include Poland for its “humungous” Baroque palace and Liverpool in England, which will host Eurovision 2023 in May.

Charleston in South Carolina and the 700-year-old capital of Lithuania, Vilnius, also made the list, along with Fiji and Manaus in Brazil, which is the gateway to the famous Amazon River.

The recognition for WA follows a high profile government-funded US advertising campaign for tourism in the state that included showing adverts on New York City’s famous Time Square billboards on New Years Eve.

The Walking On A Dream billboard advertising campaign was shown for a week in at various locations in Manhattan between December 26 and last Sunday.

It was run with a social media campaign that targeted more than 1.4 million New Yorkers, according to a WA government media statement.

The ads feature a remixed version of the song Walking On A Dream by the band Empire of the Sun.

They also include Indigneous performers Rika Hamaguchi and Ian Wilkes at locations such as Ningaloo Reef and the Bungle Bungle Range in the Kimberley.

Exmouth was established in 1967 to support the nearby US Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt. Prior to this, it was the location of still-standing Vlamingh Head Lighhouse, one of the few places in Australia where both sunset and sunrise can be observed.

In the 1970s, the town began hosting US Air Force personnel assigned to nearby Learmonth Solar Observatory, which is jointly operated with the Paul Wild astronomical research facility at Narrabri in NSW run by the CSIRO.