Balidiscovery.com reports that a small group of Bali hotel and travel operators recently produced a tongue–in-cheek video advertisement to draw attention to their growing frustration with the Australian market's prolonged recalcitrance to return to Bali for their holidays. 

Seeking to launch a low-cost Bali awareness campaign, the Little Bali Hotel & Resort Company (LBHRC)  tore a page out of the controversial Australian Tourist Commission’s "Where the Bloody Hell are You" campaign and created an amateur-quality video narrated by a traditionally dressed Balinese on a walking tour of Bali asking where the Australian tourists had gone?

The guerilla marketing campaign by Little Bali Hotel & Resort Company(LBHRC) is comprised of two parts: the initial spoof ad program distributed by Internet followed by a program of heavy discounts to the Australian market.

The eight members hotels of LBHRC are the Baleka Beach Resort, Bali Ayu Hotel & Villas, Bali Garden Hotel, Puri Etnik Hotel, Samsara Hotel & Spa, Su's Prince Cottages and Villa Coco .

Australian visitors have traditionally ranked as the second largest inbound market to Bali with Bali, in times past, being the most preferred overseas holiday destination for Australians. Current Austrial arrivals to Bali are down by more than (-)55%, following a second terror attack in October 2005. 

In response, from , the Branded Newsletter reports that the campaign has received enormous support with 20,000 unique hits on the website since its launch on Thursday.  Brett Morgan, Little Bali Hotel & Resort Company (LBHRC) Co-founder has declared he is “absolutely gob-smacked” by the reaction.

Mr Morgan said that the LBHRC has been inundated by requests from agency groups, wholesales and airlines requesting access to the short for promotional purposes.  Some of the requests even came from travel specialists located in India, Japan, the UK and USA. 

The campaign has also boosted the LBHRC brand, with hotel membership numbers expected to rise from the current number of eight in coming months following proposals from several small hoteliers. 

Mr Morgan said, “It’s been amazing – we’ve also been approached by The Lonely Planet Group in Melbourne which has applauded our effort and offered to support us via the provision of a number of its ‘Best of Bali’ guide books to give away as promotional prizes. 

“While we expected some form of knee-jerk reaction, we didn’t quite expect this.  But at the end of the day it’s all about promoting Bali and doing anything we can to help the Balinese get back to where they deserve to be.”Mr Morgan also commented that he hoped the campaign and subsequent industry response will have larger implications. 

“We’re also hoping this campaign will play a role in helping Garuda to change its current extreme stance regarding its plans to cut direct Denpasar services ex-east coast which is obviously going to have a major effect on the destination,” He said.