Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman are taking over from Paul Hogan as Australia turns to a movie to revive its flagging tourism industry.

Kidman and Jackman lead Baz Luhrmann's $96 million World War II epic "Australia," the nation's most expensive film. The director has also made tourism ads that begin airing Wednesday, using themes from the film. That's a strategy that succeeded when Hogan's promise to add a "shrimp on the barbie" wooed visitors two years before "Crocodile Dundee" became the world's highest-grossing film in 1986.

"The Hogan ads put Australia on the map and helped build the personality of Australia in people's minds," said Olivia Wirth, executive director of the Tourism & Transport Forum, a lobby group representing 200 tourism companies in Australia. "The next campaign needs to do the same, appeal to people on an emotional level."

Tourism to Australia has stalled since 2005 after rising 250 percent in the previous 15 years, a sector that generates about $13.1 billion from foreign tourists — more than any other industry except minerals and coal.

"Australia" is scheduled to open on Nov. 26. Kidman —dubbed the most overpaid movie star by Forbes Magazine — plays an English aristocrat who leaves her homeland to follow her husband to Australia's north. She undertakes a cattle drive across the country, and along the way falls in love with drover Jackman, star of the "X-Men" films.

"As a kid, I grew up watching Australian films that were accepted around the world," Kidman told the Australian Women's Weekly magazine last month. "Hopefully, the next generation will watch our movie and feel the same way because it is very much a celebration of our country and our landscape."

A box-office flop may see the ads go the way of the previous campaign, launched in February 2006, which featured a bikini-clad model asking "So where the bloody hell are you?" Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called it a "disaster" as arrivals declined.

Tourism's direct and indirect contribution to the Australian economy has dropped to 6.8 percent, from 8.5 percent in 2001. Reviving growth to the 5 percent rate of three years ago would add $1.3 billion to the economy, according to Tourism Australia data.

Between 1991 and 2005, average monthly arrivals from the U.K. almost tripled, Japanese visitors rose 30 percent, and U.S. travelers jumped 47 percent. In the three years since, U.S. visitor numbers have risen less than 1 percent, the U.K. has fallen 12 percent and Japanese arrivals have slumped 34 percent.

"The best thing the movie will do is turn around the nations where growth has been flat," said Tim Harcourt, chief economist at the Australian Trade Commission. "Notwithstanding events of Wall Street, we may reverse those fortunes. It will refocus our energies and give us a new lease of life."

Luhrmann, director of films including "Moulin Rouge" and "Romeo+Juliet," will helm the ads in partnership with DDB Worldwide, a unit of Omnicom Group Inc. The previous campaign was made by M&C Saatchi, the advertising agency formed by brothers Maurice and Charles Saatchi in 1995. Hogan's ads ran until 1990.

Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson will launch the $32.6 million campaign next week. The global budget for the previous campaign was $117.7 million, according to Tourism Australia.

Record fuel costs and a stronger Australian dollar have made it more expensive for tourists to visit, contributing to the stalling growth and limiting potential benefits of any campaign.

Ian Worcester, who's been taking visitors on crocodile watching tours on the Daintree River in North Queensland state for the past 15 years, blames the currency — which is 50 percent above its level six years ago — for declining American patronage.

"Back when the Aussie was weaker, the Americans would strut around like millionaires, but we're not getting many Yanks these days," Worcester said. Five years ago, about half his passengers were American; today they are rare, he said.

Officials hope "Australia" can echo the jump New Zealand received after the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy showcased that nation's pristine scenery. In 2004, after the final installment was released, visitors surged 11.5 percent, more than triple the 3 percent pace of the year earlier.

"New Zealand made perfect sense because it was a visually spectacular movie and they knew it was going to be huge," said Mark Ritson, associate professor of marketing at Melbourne Business School. "This is riskier because it's more deliberate to have the movie director as part of the campaign. If it works, and I suspect it will, nobody will care what it depicts."