LBHRC and the ‘Where the Bali hell are you’ campaign
(May 2008)

In response to reportage of Australia Minister for tourism, Martin Ferguson’s comments re the “failure” of the multi million dollar ‘Where the bloody hell are you’ campaign in key markets and the need for Tourism Australia to “rethink” its marketing strategy.

(Source: Travel Weekly article (Australia) ‘Ferguson: TA needs marketing rethink’, 01 May 2008)

There are obviously more ways to skin a cat and you don’t need a massive budget or a good looking blond to do it as evidenced by the Little Bali Hotel & Resort Company’s ‘Where the Bali hell are you’ marketing campaign.

It cost just $3145 to make - and most of that was spent flying a mate to Bali with the camera he uses to make wedding videos.

The LBHRC campaign achieved exactly what it was meant to in its target market – creation of renewed interest in Bali and an increase in visitor arrivals from Australia.

Proof of the pudding - the number of Australians visiting Bali in 2007 last year jumped by an incredible 70 per cent*.

And this year is already shaping up well with many of the destination's hoteliers and operators claiming the best forward bookings seen in years from this market.

While LBHRC cannot – and would not – take full credit for this fantastic result, the company does like to think it had something to do with these figures having launched its ‘Where the Bali hell are you?’ campaign in early November 2006.

And don't forget, the star of the LBHRC show was a bloke called Mr Gary wearing a skirt.

Incidentally, and unintentionally, the campaign reportedly also did well in Japan - apparently Mr Gary was a huge hit over there.

This may have had something to do with the more than 94,000 Japanese tourists visiting Bali in the first three months of this year, 37,000 more than the second biggest source of arrivals - Australia with 57,000.

A version of the original ‘Where the Bali hell are you’ video clip has been kept alive by the YouTube faithful and can still be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkH2DzSEiFM.

*Figures released by the Indonesian government indicate Australian visitor arrivals to Bali for the period January to December 2007 totalled 204,421 compared to the 117, 969 total recorded for the same period in 2006.