Tourists Down Under lured with ‘get laid’ campaign

MELBOURNE - Tourists visiting Australia are being lured to Queensland’s Mission Beach with a new marketing campaign, which claims it is the one place where you can “get high, get wet and get laid”.

According to the Cairns Post, the campaign, aimed squarely at the Far North’s fun-loving backpacker market, began this week with Bruce Highway billboards, and it is already prompting both giggles and gasps.

The tourist town south of Cairns is a hub for whitewater rafting, skydiving and diving on the Great Barrier Reef - but locals say unknowing backpackers often book the activities in Cairns and bus in and out for the day.

Scotty’s Beach House, Skydive Mission Beach and RnR White Water Rafting created the new billboards.

They follow a controversial tourism campaign last year titled “Cairns - Great Up Top, Fun Down Under”.

It had led to a prime time rant from talk show comic Rove McManus for its images of a young woman in a wet T-shirt competition and its slogans such as “four play” and “get high before breakfast”.

Scotty’s Beach House owner Boyd Scott said the new Mission Beach campaign was a light-hearted way to lure more backpackers south.

But Mission Beach Business and Tourism boss John Hill says he does not want “an Airlie Beach party town reputation” for his hometown, which also depends on a strong market in families and older couples.

He is worried the highway signs will unnecessarily scare off tourists.

Scott on the other hand says people need to lighten up.

“I’ve been in the backpacker industry for 22 years and from what I’m hearing they’ve (signs) hit the mark,” News.com.au quoted him as saying.

“Backpackers have come in and told me it’s hilarious,” he added. (ANI)