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 possibly someone huge.
That’s when he got here up with the concept to succeed in out to actor Chris Hemsworth, who’s Australia’s nationwide superstar tourism ambassador and commonly shares snapshots of himself touring round Oz on Instagram.
The outcome 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 didn’t 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 crew couldn’t launch it till native lockdowns had ended and journey was starting to reopen.
“We’ve 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.
“Large like to all the oldsters in Cowra for this superb marketing campaign, warmed my coronary heart and made me smile!” he wrote. “I’m off taking pictures a movie abroad quickly however upon return subsequent yr I’m comin in scorching!!”
Folks pose in Hemsworth masks at a Cowra pub.
Courtesy Cowra Tourism Company
“I missed Australia. I missed the individuals. I missed the shoreline,” he informed CNN on the time.
The “Get Chris to Cowra” web site additionally comprises an in-joke referencing considered one 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” is just not essentially a phrase that may be uttered in blended firm — the industrial grew to become well-known world wide.
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 automobile from Canberra and 4 from Sydney — can get pleasure from Japanese-style gardens, an artwork gallery with each modern and Indigenous work and a Pageant of Worldwide Understanding, which is held each spring.
