The national company Kazakh Tourism has released a video about Kazakhstan with the slogan from the controversial film «Borat»: «Kazakhstan? Very nice!». Within a few days, the video has become popular in many countries around the world. You will find out how the tourist industry and the Kazakh community reacted to it in this article.
The first part of the Comedy «Borat» was released in 2006. Then representatives of the country’s authorities perceived the film negatively, noting that it absolutely does not correspond to reality. Later, the Ministry of foreign Affairs recommended not to show it to a wide audience.
The second series of «Borat» caused a mixed reaction among Kazakhstanis: someone was offended by the film, and someone reacted with humor to what they saw. For example, representatives of the tourist industry together with «Kazakh Tourism» decided to make a video about the country’s tourist potential, using the popular phrase of the main character: «Kazakhstan? Very nice!».
In a matter of hours, it went viral. It was written about in the New York Times, Gurdian, Insider and Forbes, and about 30 other world publications.
Despite the success of the PR move, there was concern that Kazakh tourists might be outraged by such an advertising campaign, to the point that the growth rate of domestic tourism might slow down. However, Deputy Chairman of the Board of JSC NC Kazakh Tourism Kairat Sadvakasov explained that both participants of the tourism industry and their partners reacted positively: «Representatives of the travel market are asking us not to stop at short-term success and continue to further develop and promote our advertising campaign so that we can capitalize on the popularity of the film. The Kazakh community also supported us. This is evidenced by numerous comments and calls to shoot videos «Very nice!»showing the country’s tourist opportunities.»
The national company also noted that there was no criticism from other government agencies. «Our opinions and interests agree that this time the reaction to the film should have changed and received «dividends» from the sequel, » said Kairat Sadvakasov.
Experts of the tourist industry of Kazakhstan believe that before the pandemic, the indicators for inbound tourism were growing noticeably, and more and more foreign tourists were interested in the country’s tourist opportunities. However, the coronavirus managed to confuse all plans in a matter of time. Creating a viral video should remind foreigners about Kazakhstan and give an impetus to the development of tourism.
Many representatives of the tourism industry noted that this was a bold step on the part of Kazakh Tourism, and they hope that the promotion of Kazakhstan will continue to be implemented in such a progressive way.
Information taken from the site Profi.travel.
