The best and worst tourism slogans: from Australia’s ‘So where the bloody hell are you?’ to ‘Djibeauty’
- In an A-Z of destinations’ slogans, we explore hits and misses, from unforgettable tag lines to those that are best forgotten
Devising a slogan that encapsulates everything a holiday destination has to offer is no easy task. There are clichés to avoid and cultural differences to consider, not to mention the issue of timing. “Hong Kong will take your breath away” coincided with the outbreak of deadly respiratory disease Sars in 2003, for example.
Slogans range from the unimaginative “Visit Armenia, it is Beautiful” to the lost in translation “Think Hungary – More Than Expected”. “Colombia is Magical Realism” hints at a drug-fuelled brainstorming session at the ad agency while the national tourist offices of some lesser-known nations are merely content to tell travellers where they are: “Andorra, The Pyrenean Country”; “Bosnia & Herzegovina, the heart of SE Europe”, and “Tuvalu: Yoo-hoo, we’re over here in the South Pacific”. (Sorry, I made that last one up).
Meanwhile, Nebraska’s “Honestly, it’s not for everyone”, suggests a lack of self-esteem. Mind you, the bar was already pretty low – the American state previously tried to lure tourists with, “Visit Nebraska. Visit Nice.”
Here are some more winning watchwords and a few that are best forgotten.
Launched in 2006, Tourism Australia’s “So where the bloody hell are you?” campaign was banned in some countries (“hell”, rather than “bloody”, being the offending word) and spawned plenty of parodies. It was successful in terms of exposure but failed to generate an increase in visitors.