Canadian publication says “Where The Bloody Hell Are You?” campaign should be considered a success story

A Report in The Embassy, Canada’s Foreign Policy news weekly last week says that Tourism Australia’s “Where The Bloody Hell Are You Campaign?” should be considered a success story in how to capitalise on the global tourism market.

With the headline, “How One Country Turned Tourists’ Desires into Reality” the article says, that after much research, funding and political guidance, Australia has become a success story on how to capitalize in the competitive global tourism market and for four days last month, Torontonians were offered a chance to escape the cold Canadian winter and visit Australia.

Those who took up the offer basked in the warmth of summer and were treated to a wide range of new experiences, including art, wine and food from the Land Down Under and they were also able to see live performances by the likes of country singer Keith Urban and Terri and Bindi Irwin, wife and daughter of the late Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter.

Best of all, participants were able to save on airfare by simply wandering down to a biosphere that had been built at Yonge and Dundas Square in the centre of Toronto.

In a day and age where more and more countries are fighting to gain a share of the world’s growing tourism market, Luke Jones, Manager of Tourism Australia’s Canada office, says the idea was to try to make a blip on the Canadian radar, adding, “Our objective was to get the thing covered and get people to go through and experience a little piece of Australia, and if they liked what they saw, there was a travel agency in there as well.”

“It was all about people talking and visualizing themselves in Australia and taking the next step.”

The article says that it seems that every country is advertising itself as a tourist destination as the industry has been recognized as an essential component of a nation’s economy, adding, no matter how poor or seemingly out of the way a destination may seem, advances in air travel and prices have now made almost anything possible.  As a result, it’s often difficult for countries to separate themselves from the rest of the world in a successful way.

It goes on to say, “But one campaign, Australia’s $US180-million ‘Where The Bloody Hell Are You? campaign repeatedly comes up when experts are asked to discuss successful tourism marketing strategies.”

“They have been very successful,” says Brent Ritchie, Chair of the World Tourism Education and Research Centre, and a Professor at the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business. “They’ve really just leaped ahead.”

Mr. Jones says Australia faces a unique challenge in that travellers want to visit the country, with Australia the top-ranked desired destination for Canadians and yet the country only gets 2% of all Canadian tourists.

He added, “Our goal isn’t about creating more desire to go to Australia,” adding, “It’s actually about getting people to understand what the vacation experience is about and getting them to take that first step to coming down………Because it is a big purchase.”

That’s why the Where The Bloody Hell Are You? campaign, unveiled in February 2006, was designed to show people that Australians are waiting for the travellers to arrive, in addition featuring Australian culture and the people rather than the traditional scenery images.

He added, “We’ve got beaches, but so do a lot of places around the world.

“We’ve got fine dining with great wine, but so does Europe.”

“Trying to convince someone from France to go to Australia to sample wine is a hard sell, so what we’ve really had to put our finger on is what we really offer and we really try to roll up the personality of the people because Aussies really like to welcome foreigners in the country.”

“In addition, the campaign targets a specific class of traveller termed ‘experience seekers’, which are generally well-educated, well-travelled people who are looking for a new adventure.”

“The fly and flop people are people who are usually just sick of the weather and they want to go and see the sun for a week and lie on the beach,” he says. “The people who travel long haul are people who really like to immerse themselves in different cultures and there’s definitely the sun and the surf element in that, but they’re looking for more than that.”

“There’s a big market failure here in that not all travel agents know how to sell Australia and we want to decrease the probability that when someone walks into a travel agency, they get sold Hawaii instead of Australia because the travel agent doesn’t know anything about our nation.”

But the advances in Australia’s marketing campaign and its focus on one type of traveller came only after years of experience and research, adding, “We were kind of dancing around it for a while,” Mr. Jones says, “You want to appeal to everyone, that is the temptation, but if you want to make a difference within your sphere of influence, you really have to be precise about who you’re talking to.”

Report by The Mole