So when it got here to bringing vacationers again to this sunny piece of New South Wales, Cowra Tourism supervisor Glenn Daley knew it was going to take one thing huge. Or perhaps someone huge.
That is when he got here up with the concept to achieve out to actor Chris Hemsworth, who’s Australia’s nationwide celeb tourism ambassador and usually shares snapshots of himself touring round Oz on Instagram.
The consequence was #GetChristoCowra, an advert marketing campaign backed by the native tourism council and totally embraced by Cowra’s residents. Within the advert’s video, Cowra locals (some precise residents, some actors) costume up in Thor costumes, maintain up indicators and even make plans to construct a large four-story-high statue of the Aussie film star.
Blueprints for the hypothetical statue of Chris Hemsworth.
Courtesy Cowra Tourism Company
Daley, who grew up on his household farm in Cowra and moved again a couple of years in the past, admits that the marketing campaign was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. However he was touched by what number of locals bought concerned.
“I did not notice how a lot the city wants a lift,” he says. “Everyone seems to be getting on board.”
Although the marketing campaign advert was filmed in June, Daley and his workforce could not launch it till native lockdowns had ended and journey was starting to reopen.
“We have been busting ourselves to maintain it in,” he admits.
The key-keeping paid off. The marketing campaign video was launched to Australian media final week and instantly began gaining traction on-line and on TV.
“Huge like to all the oldsters in Cowra for this wonderful marketing campaign, warmed my coronary heart and made me smile!” he wrote. “I am off capturing a movie abroad quickly however upon return subsequent yr I am comin in sizzling!!”
Folks pose in Hemsworth masks at a Cowra pub.
Courtesy Cowra Tourism Company
“I missed Australia. I missed the folks. I missed the shoreline,” he advised CNN on the time.
The “Get Chris to Cowra” web site additionally comprises an in-joke referencing one in every of Australia’s most iconic tourism campaigns.
The web page header quote “The place the bloody hell is he?” references a 2006 Tourism Australia marketing campaign titled “So the place the bloody hell are you?”
Though the marketing campaign was banned within the UK — the place “bloody” shouldn’t be essentially a phrase that may be uttered in combined firm — the business turned well-known all over the world.
The slogan was the brainchild of Scott Morrison, who was managing director of Tourism Australia on the time. He’s now the nation’s prime minister.
Whether or not Hemsworth makes it to Cowra in 2022 or not, Daley is amazed by how far the tourism marketing campaign has unfold.
“It has put Cowra on the map internationally, which is phenomenal for a tiny city.”
Vacationers who’re in a position to make it to Cowra — about two hours by automotive from Canberra and 4 from Sydney — can get pleasure from Japanese-style gardens, an artwork gallery with each up to date and Indigenous work and a Competition of Worldwide Understanding, which is held each spring.
