Aussie tourism body apologises for racial slur

Melbourne, May 12 (ANI): A Northern Territory Government agency has apologised after a blogger here caught it out paying for a sponsored Google link to the racial slur “Abo”.ill Tuesday afternoon, if an internet user typed “Abo” into Google, a sponsored Tourism NT advertisement popped up. It even used the word as the headline for its ad.

Underneath “Abo” it said: “An experience you will never forget. Experience Aboriginal culture in NT”.

The ad linked to the Travel NT website, run by Tourism NT.

It was first spotted by blogger Brett Nicholson, of Melbourne agency Next Digital, on Monday.

“I came across this by accident when misspelling an acronym and I was quite shocked,” he wrote in his blog.

“Not only have Tourism NT approved - and are bidding on - a racially offensive keyword, they are actually including the word ‘abo’ in an advertisement.”

According to The Courier Mail, Tourism NT released a three-sentence statement, which said it had alerted its online search provider and the link had been taken down.

Spokeswoman Carmel Nola, when pressed for more information, said they were still investigating. (ANI)