It’s a difficult time for tourism marketing organizations, what with budget cuts, job losses and most visitors still unwilling to spend as much as before the recession. But do these desperate times call for desperado measures? Apparently so…

New Mexico: Whenever New Mexico governors are in trouble, they tend to call on Billy the Kid for help. Former Governor Bill Richardson did the same when he tried to pardon Billy the Kid. That created a big-enough ruckus to give the governor a much-needed diversion from his state’s problems.

Now, current New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez has decided to go the other way and put a $10,000 bounty on the hapless Kid. As part of a new New Mexico tourism campaign, she wants people to join a virtual posse online and then travel the state for real in search of the infamous outlaw. There’s even a dedicated website (www.catchthekid.com) to create a posse profile.

Designated locations will have clues that lead to the Kid and his hideouts. Participants have to be in the right place at the right time to catch him. There’s a smartphone “Catch the Kid” app, or participants can just take pictures and upload them to their profile pages.

Those using a smartphone stand to gain Billy’s “loot” along the way, which can be used to buy vacations, deals and meals on the website’s general store. The first posse to “capture” the kid gets a $10,000 reward.

Guerrero, Mexico: The Mexican state of Guerrero placed a help-wanted ad looking for beautiful women to sign up as “tourist police” to patrol its popular visitor destinations, like Acapulco. Ramon Almonte Borja, head of the state’s public security secretariat, tells CNN that the idea is to set up a police force “comprised of only women, preferably beautiful ones.”

The “police force” will be unarmed, and its job description is apparently to look good in specially designed police uniforms and to guide tourists. Makes you wonder why crime in Mexico is such a big problem… There are currently 52 openings, but that could change depending on how many women apply.

Cyprus: Should the Cyprus Tourism Organization (CTO) advertise in toilets? Thing is, a Cypriot found a CTO tourism ad pasted in a toilet in a soccer (football) stadium in Glasgow. Now CTO is taking heat for wasting ad budgets on toilets.

CTO explained that it was a freebie included in a larger campaign that featured television spots. One CTO employee suggested that freebie or not, the captive audience for the urinal ads had no other place to look, so it probably worked out very well.

New York, NY: In anticipation of the July 29 release of a motion picture filmed in New York City by Sony Pictures, NYC & Company has handed over its tourism promotion duties to little blue smurfs.

The smurfs have been declared official family ambassadors with the task of getting more families to visit the Big Apple, and they’re doing a pretty good job of it with Smurfs Week NYC.

“There are very few characters like the Smurfs—they have an appeal across generations all over the world,” explained Marc Weinstock, president, worldwide marketing for Sony Pictures. “That’s why we wanted to team up with NYC & Company to present Smurfs Week NYC. We’ve planned an exciting week of activities for visitors and New Yorkers alike—this is a great way to celebrate the release of the movie.”

Photos: NM Tourism, nycgo.com

(This post was updated on July 29, 2011, to remove the reference to Greece in the Cyprus section.)

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A destination with a unique selling proposition can be a blessing and a curse. Some places embrace their mojo and promote their distinguishing feature; others don’t want to be bracketed and prefer to remind visitors about all the other good things in their destination.

From sun to peace, witches to a frozen dead guy, here are a few choice examples of the weird and wonderful world of destination marketing.

Yuma, Ariz.

Yuma, Arizona - In a “super-secret meeting” on June 16, members of the Yuma Visitors Bureau unveiled a new promotion: Starting August 1, 2011, any guest staying at participating hotels in Yuma will dine free—if it is a cloudy day.

The thing is that Yuma is America’s sunniest city, with reliable sunshine 350 days a year on average.

Who decides if it is a cloudy day? If necessary, “Code Gloom” will be declared at 5 p.m. by a committee comprised of meteorologists and tourism bureau staff and members.

La Paz, Mexico – While tourism to Mexico in general suffers from perceptions of violence and drug wars, the La Paz tourism board is making hay by “declaring peace on the United States.” On June 14 it kicked off its campaign, called “La Paz: City of Peace and Abundance on the Sea of Cortez.”

“The awareness campaign ensures that La Paz—[which means] ‘peace’ in Spanish—is recognized as one of the world’s most safe and secure cities,” says Agustin Olachea, president of La Paz Tourism Board. “Those who have had the good fortune of discovering La Paz on their own have found that it offers a rare combination of overwhelming beauty, sense of community and balanced infrastructure.”

The campaign invades Redondo Beach, California, on June 28 to announce a declaration of peace amongst sister cities.

Ely, Minn. calls Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak on tin can

Ely, Minnesota – Voted “America’s Coolest Small Town” by Budget Travel magazine, the Ely Chamber of Commerce proved how cool they were by prowling the Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis with nerdy string-and-can telephones, asking people (including Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak; see video) to talk via the cans.

The marketing campaign’s name? “Ely’s Calling You Back.”

Tunisia – The main reason Tunisia is in the news these days is because it triggered the revolutions that have spread all over the Middle East. Tunisia Tourism, in a controversial U.K. ad campaign conceived by ad agency Memac Ogilvy, is embracing the infamy and unrest.

One billboard in London, showing a woman getting a massage, says, “They say that in Tunisia some people receive heavy-handed treatment.” Another one showing ancient Roman ruins: “They say Tunisia is nothing but ruins.”

Salem, Massachusetts – Salem’s witch trials date back to 1692, and witch-related tourism began in the first half of the 20th century. Still, it’s fair to say that Salem has been desperately trying to get rid of its witches and witch-tourism for a long time now. As far back as 1925, a local newspaper mulled over re-branding Salem as the “City of Shoes.” In 2004, it tried to change from witchcraft to maritime history, but that didn’t work either.

Salem’s latest re-branding effort? Promote generic attractions, like the Salem Arts Festival, which includes Buckaroo Bonsai and belly dancing.

Tuff Shed in Nederland with Frozen Dead Guy

Nederland, Colorado – This town tucked in the Rocky Mountains west of Boulder is stuck with a frozen dead guy—literally.

Since 1993, the corpse of “Grandpa Bredo Morstoel” has been kept intact packed in dry ice in a Tuff shed here, in the hope that technology will be able to revive him one day.

Interest in the revival hopeful has turned into a huge annual festival, with 15,000 visitors coming to Nederland every March for “Frozen Dead Guy Days.” The town has coffin races, a slow-motion parade and “Frozen Dead Guy” look-alike contests.

The festival is now too big for the Nederland Chamber of Commerce to handle, so it wants the event to be professionally managed, but is scared that selling it to someone will mean the corpse and festival will get shipped out of town.

Photos: Yuma – Yuma Visitor’s Bureau site snapshot; Ely – Ely chamber of commerce; Frozen Dead Guy – 3Neus

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The legislative crisis in Wisconsin has forced the state’s Democratic senators to hideout in neighboring Illinois, where the Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau (RACVB) has launched a “Hideaway in Rockford” campaign to seize this opportunity to market itself.

Hideaway in Rockford, Ill.

When they first decided to go on the lam, the Wisconsin senators headed straight for Rockford, Ill., 15 minutes south of the Wisconsin border, and holed up in the Best Western Clock Tower Resort and Conference Center.

The RACVB asked its advertising agency GrahamSpencer to quickly cut a video on the topic within 48 hours and launched a website and marketing campaign to make the most of the city’s time in the limelight.

The video features everyone from the mayor of Rockford Lawrence J. Morrissey and RACVB president and CEO John Groh to local Rick Nielsen, guitarist for Cheap Trick. It has scored 60,892 views as of the time of publishing.

The video begins with a series of people being asked whether they’re a Wisconsin state senator. Then it shows the mayor exiting city hall and being asked the same question, followed in turn by a few more people and, even, a sock puppet.

When the RACVB’s Groh is in front of the camera, he denies he’s one of the senators hiding out in Rockford and instead turns on his sales charm to explain why the legislators from Wisconsin and Indiana have been hiding out in Illinois—and in particular Rockford—touting his city’s micro-breweries, restaurants, nightclubs, sports venues and other attractions.

“We want people to come here and hideaway from whatever they’re trying to get away from,” says Groh. “We want folks to come to Rockford for their own legislation vacation. Rockford is full of opportunities for folks to do some collective bargaining at our locally owned stores and shops.”

Escape to Illinois

If you see the video, you’ll realize how smoothly it segues from making fun of the fugitive senators into a marketing pitch targeting visitors. Rick Nielsen wraps it up with a celebrity pitch about why he’s been hiding out in Rockford for more than 40 years.

To whip up some more media attention, the RACVB published a statement that tells visitors they can come to Rockford to explore “hideaway hotspots,” take advantage of “runaway rates” at local hotels and lists a bevy of activities they can indulge in while hiding out.

In related matters, an Illinois legislator has introduced a bill to tax the out-of-state legislators hiding out in the state. Illinois governor Pat Quinn does not see it that way, and says the Senators are not hiding out but simply visiting and that Illinois is happy to have them over for the visit.

Photo credits – RACVB

For more information, visit hideawayinrockford.com and gorockford.com.

New Zealand Tourism has changed its marketing message and focus from the 12 year old “100% Pure New Zealand” to a new and more personal “New Zealand 100% Pure You.”

New Zealand 100% Pure You Campaign

The new $85 million/year campaign was launched in the Australian market with three television commercials and online banner ads on Jan 9, 2011. It comes to North America, Europe and Asia in late February.

Tourism New Zealand General Manager Marketing Communications Justin Watson says the new campaign will highlight the diverse tourism experiences available in New Zealand, instead of the Lord of the Rings style landscapes and scenery spotlighted by the old campaign, which will now remain in the backdrop.

The main premise and reason for the ‘evolution’ in the message is that  New Zealand can increase its appeal by personalizing the marketing message and then customizing it for different markets. So the Australian tv ads show a young woman jet boating, a middle-aged father taking his children walking and a young woman horse riding.

They’ve put in a lot of effort behind the ads too, in an attempt to make it authentic. The young woman in the ads is Stephanie Lillis, a 25-yr old actor from Melbourne. Tourism NZ paid her $7,500 plus expenses for filming the jetboat ad on the Dart River near Queenstown.

The campaign is probably going to work out well, since it finetunes the message and will end up attracting many more of the potential 80 million people actively considering a visit to what they already know is 100% Pure New Zealand, but have no idea what to do after getting there.

But there are fears that the new message and its impact may dilute the 100% Pure New Zealand brand and take away from the main USP that New Zealand is a young country with vast natural beauty and resources as yet unspoilt by man. The indigenous Maori people also seem to be miffed at having been left out in the cold.

The Maori Party put out a press release that says “Nothing Maori, nothing unique in NZ tourism campaign.” Maori Party tourism spokesperson Te Ururoa Flavell said in the statement that “The Maori people, our culture and language is what makes Aotearoa New Zealand unique – you will not find it anywhere else on earth yet we have been cut out of the frame in this campaign.”

More info: http://www.tourismnewzealand.com/