In January, Tourism Queensland put out want ads looking for a "caretaker" for Hamilton Island on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Nearly 35,000 people applied. More important, the press picked up the story. "The main objective is to generate media coverage to supplement advertising," says Bill Siegel of the market-research firm Longwoods International.
Struggling tourist destinations are devising all sorts of over-the-top advertising campaigns to make themselves stand out. In August, 10 contestants chosen through a Web competition will scramble around the Netherlands Antilles island of Curacao on a treasure hunt for half a million dollars—a tiny fraction of the tourist dollars the island hopes the move will generate. Such bold promotions have been known to work;
when Starwood advertised "Procreation Vacations" at its Caribbean properties—complete with couples massages and fertility enhancing foods—it led to 43 bookings and $102,000 in revenue. No word yet on how many babies.
