Need to boost tourism in your corner of the world?
Try this: Pick the most distinctive thing about your location. Hire somebody to take, essentially, a six-month vacation in that place, doing all of those fun, distinctive activities, and blogging about it for six months. Don't search for this fortunate fellow in just your local area. Instead, place classified ads in newspapers around the globe, inviting anyone to apply for the Best Job in the World. Require them to submit their applications via online video. Invite the top applicants to fly to your site for interviews. Pick the best one and set him to work.
And get $98 million (USD) of publicity for your location in the process.
That's what the tourism board of Queensland, Australia did with their "Best Job in the World" campaign this year. In January 2009, they announced their position with classified ads stating this:
The Best Job in the World
Position Vacant: Island Caretaker
Location: Islands of the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia
Salary: AUD$150,000 six-month contract
Responsibilities: Clean the pool, Feed the fish, Collect the mail, Explore and report back
Applications close: 22 February 2009 Interviews: 4 May 2009 Announcement made: 8 May 2009
Work begins: 1 July 2009
Anyone can apply.
www.islandreefjob.com
The website received over 34,000 applicants. 15 finalists spent four days together on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef, taking tests in snorkeling, swimming, eating island barbecue, and blogging. The winner, Ben Southall, 34, a charity worker from Petersfield, UK, began work 2 July 2009.
Since the job began, Ben has been staying in a multi-million-dollar three-bedroom beach villa with pool, exploring the island, snorkeling the reef, posting photos, videos, and blogs, and earning AUD$150,000 (USD$134,000) in the process.
With 34,000 applicants alone (not to mention other visitors to the site and followers of Ben's blog) and estimated USD$98 million in free publicity from news media around the world, I would imagine that Tourism Queensland will be doing pretty well for quite a while.
To see a video recap of the campaign, visit http://adage.com/u/lvfdVaM.
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It's a greate solution, if your country is good (nice climate, interesting job with a good salary). I thing that not every man want live and work in Estonia for 500$ for month. We have a joke about our summer "This year there was a summer, but I was at this time on work"
ReplyDeleteJera, good point. Thanks for sharing the joke! I think that every country has something beautiful, something unique, something interesting about it in which its citizens can take pride, and which visitors would want to see. What about Estonia's coastlines, or national parks, or castles? Could they attract a "caretaker/blogger" and tourists?
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