Everyone!

“Everyone must go!” It’s a seemingly simple, direct statement. Not in New Zealand, however. This is the new positioning statement for tourism in the country and a controversy, if you will. Apparently, some New Zealanders think it is an unworthy statement on which to promote the country as a tourist destination. It sounds like a retail sale or words to that effect, and, it sounds cheap, and not in the good way.

In a world currently suffering from absolute madness everywhere, and, as a potential tourist of the country, I don’t think they have anything to worry about in New Zealand using this slogan. Let’s look at the facts. New Zealand is in the middle of nowhere in the ocean, a long way from the rest of the world. It is arduous, by today’s standards, to get there. (Imagine if you had to take a sailing ship in the 18th Century. Now, that’s arduous!) Exhorting people to go there is not unreasonable.

Knowledgeable people understand what an incredible, wonderful place New Zealand is. They understand what it’s about. There really is no other place like it on the planet, and, Hobbits live there, too. The trick for New Zealand in these tumultuous times is not to sell its many virtues, it’s getting people to actually make the journey, and exhorting them to do so with very direct language makes sense. I think “Everyone must go!” is perfect right now.