How the Foreign Office is trying to encourage young travellers to Australia (and everywhere else) to enjoy a #holidaywin instead of a #holidayfail.
Curse you. You’re young. The world is your lobster (as someone once said). You’ve yet to discover the joys of mortgages, wrinkles and the 9-5. But statistically, you are also more likely to set off to explore the world without a great deal of planning. And that means you’re statistically more likely to end up in a spot of bother.
Sound like you? Then the Foreign Office wants a word, and it wants to do it with images young UK holidaymakers have taken of their #holidaywins or #holidayfails.
The Take Your Pic campaign is primarily aimed at beaches closer to home than Australia, but since thousands of young Brits travel Australia every year, the message is just as valid whether you’re in Melbourne or Magaluf.
#holidayfail?
The core messages seem perfectly sensible when you’re sober. You know, the ones about heading back to your room using the lift, not the balconies; or enjoying a party night that doesn’t end in hospital. But add drugs or alcohol to the mix and young British tourists are suddenly far more likely to do something that gets them into trouble.
Take Bulgaria as just one example. As the FCO site notes, “between May to September last year the British Embassy in Sofia dealt with 4 arrests, 2 deaths, 7 hospitalisations, 4 mental health cases, 4 rape and sexual assaults cases and 11 lost or stolen passports all involving Britons aged between 15 and 30”.
The campaign runs until the end of September 2015, so if you’re travelling Australia and having a whale of a time, or a total nightmare, capture the essence of it in a snapshot and post it on Twitter using #holidaywin or #holidayfail or upload to hellotakeyourpic.tumblr.com. And tell us about it too @GlobalGrapevine!
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