Australia offers tourists app-controlled 'GIGA Selfies'

CANBERRA, Australia, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Tourism Australia is seeking to attract selfie-loving Japanese visitors with "GIGA Selfies," cameras that take far-off photos of tourists via a smartphone app.

The "GIGA Selfie" events, announced via a video posted to YouTube, call on visitors to stand in designated spots to control far-off cameras that take short video clips that begin as close-up shots and quickly zoom out to show the surrounding scenery.

Tourism Australia said the first two "GIGA Selfie" cameras will be available for tourists to use at locations in Queensland's Gold Coast resort region Sept. 5-6.

"The 'GIGA Selfie' campaign will help to raise the level of conversation about Australia in Japan as people share their incredible experiences of holidaying here with their friends and family back home," Tourism Australia managing director John O'Sullivan said in a news release.

The agency said Japan was the sixth-largest market for Australian tourism in 2014, with more than 320,000 Japanese citizens taking trips down under.