Pitching Cambodia – So where the bloody hell are you?

Cambodia is one of the less popular destinations for first time travellers to Asia. With so many diverse countries to choose from, Cambodia really hasn’t done a great deal to get into the hearts and minds of world travellers. Tourism is a key industry for many Asian countries and in order to attract, they need to market their product. Many countries are hopping on the bandwagon following the hugely successful “Malaysia Truly Asia” campaign.

Malaysia does have a lot to offer – food, diversity of cultures, heritage, beaches, islands, diving, rainforests with the World’s largest flower, but ask someone what they want to see when they visit Malaysia and they will struggle for an answer. The most famous thing about Malaysia is the Petronas Towers. But you don’t book a vacation to see a skyscraper. Despite this, the campaign has seen a solid and consistent increase in tourism.

Many countries have hopped on the bandwagon with their own taglines:

Incredible India

Amazing Thailand

Dynamic Korea

Uniquely Singapore

Wow Philippines

Maldives, The sunny side of life

Naturally Nepal

Even Australia introduced a tagline in 2007 courtesy of UK based advertising agency M&C Saatchi, which was, and I kid you not,

“So where the bloody hell are you?”

That A$180 million dollar campaign ran into some difficulties when it was banned for using the word “bloody” on UK TV. It was also banned in Canada for it’s promotion of alcohol consumption where in the opening scene of the commercial, a guy in an Outback bar says “We’ve poured you a beer”.

Cambodia desperately needs tourism to bolster its fledgling economy. Tourism is Cambodia’s second largest industry next to textiles. Despite this, Cambodia only attracts less than 5 million tourists a year. Compared to neighboring Thailand’s 25 million tourists, clearly Cambodia is not doing a particularly good job.

They do have a tagline,

Cambodia, Kingdom of Wonder

And they do put out some cheaply produced and very unimaginative videos. They even have a Kingdom of Wonder song.

At least M&C Saatchi was creative, and we all know controversy sells.

Given what is at stake here, if I ran an advertising agency, I would be knocking on the door of the Cambodian government and making a pitch.

Cambodia should be an easy sell to tourists around the world. And I am not talking food or culture, but a unique magical destination that should be on everyone’s bucket list. I am of course referring to the largest religious structure in the world, Angkor Wat.

Build a campaign around that and your next paycheck could well be A$180 million!

I leave you with some pictures of my last trip there. I am hardly what you would call an expert photographer, but despite this, with such a photogenic subject matter it is almost impossible to fail.

Dean Owen is Co-Founder of Quimojo, a revolutionary new concept in Global Campus Recruitment