 As bikini-clad woman vanishes, come 'walkabout'
By Wang Hongyi (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-13 07:48
Come Walkabout, a one-minute marketing commercial film highlighting Australia as a "must visit" destination for tourists, will be shown on major TV channels and in cinemas in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou by the end of November. The commercial film, released by Tourism Australia (TA) in Shanghai last week, is part of its global publicity campaign aimed at boosting Australia's A$65 billion ($43 billion) tourism industry. Come Walkabout links TA's global marketing efforts to Baz Luhrmann's new film, Australia, which features the country's expansive vistas and homegrown actors, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. It was considered as "one of its greatest promotional opportunities in many years" by the country's tourism minister, Martin Ferguson. The commercial, which could not be more different from its controversial predecessor, replaces a bikini-clad woman asking "Where the bloody hell are you?" with an Aboriginal boy urging a harassed city worker to "go walkabout". With two versions set in New York and Shanghai, the commercials show two young couples stressed, overworked and disconnected with themselves and their partner/spouse and how they are able to reconnect with themselves and their loved ones as they enjoy the romance, adventure and the transforming nature of the Australian land. The oriental version invites Chinese travelers to come "Walkabout" in Australia. "To find yourself sometimes you need to lose yourself. In Australia they call this going walkabout," the commercial says, showing tourists diving over the Great Barrier Reef, up close on a beach with kangaroos or ballooning over the capital Canberra. "Walkabout" is a rite of passage when Australia's indigenous Aborigines wander in the outback bush. "The term is a uniquely Australian way of describing what holidays should be - a time of release, joy, discovery and reconnection with our loved ones and our real selves," said Brian Boote, TA's regional marketing & insights manager of North Asia. TA's global tourism marketing campaign was announced leveraging on the movie, Australia, in hope that can boost visitor numbers in the same way that Crocodile Dundee ushered in a cash bonanza in the 1980s. Find true self The movie Australia tells the story of Kidman's character who "has lost her sense of self but who finds adventure, romance and her true self" when she visits Australia. "We found that the film's story had a remarkable resonance for what we do marketing the country as a travel destination," said Boote. "Because when people see Australia the movie we believe that they will be motivated to visit Australia and so it is in our interest that we encourage them to see the movie." "Australia will reveal to the world Australia's romantic transformational and adventurous personality. Tourism Australia believes that this movie will make audiences all over the world fall in love with Australia and help to make our country a highly fashionable...must see... tourism destination," Boote said. The movie Australia is scheduled for worldwide release in November and TA has announced a global marketing campaign to accompany the movie, which would run in all of Tourism Australia's 22 major markets around the world from October 2008 until mid 2009. The campaign will run in cinema, television, print and online. Asia is forecast to be the fastest growing outbound travel region in the next decade, and Australia is hoping it will help turn the tide of plummeting holidaymakers. TA has targeted to achieve a growth of 3.2 percent inbound tourists in 2009. With traditional markets such as Japan in decline, and the UK and US economies in recession, some countries are still emerging such as China and India, according to Boote. China is the fifth largest sources of tourists to Australia, and visitors from the Chinese mainland to Australia last year were 360,000. "The RMB has been appreciating; it is the golden time to travel to Australia. So we are very confident of China market," said Boote. (China Daily 11/13/2008 page11) |
