Typical visitor to Cartagena, Chile.

Doesn't she seem to be really enjoying herself?

Marketing Genius: Tourist Capital for Geriatrics
While on a leisurely drive up the coast, Aileen and I passed through a quaint (read shitty) little beach town called Cartagena. Whereas Viņa del Mar is the summertime retreat for the "well-to-do", Cartagena is the favored hot spot for the "well-I've-got-nothing-to-do."

The houses were dilapidated to say the least, and many of them appeared to have been runner's up for the on-location filming sites from various horror movies from Psycho to Amityville. The streets were pocked with pot holes. Local restaurants looked to specialize in botulism and salmonella. Yet, the beach was packed to the hilt. Swimsuit clad tourists laughed and skipped along through the sand in droves.

How was such a dumpy little town able to pull in such healthy waves of tourists?

The answer is simple. Genius marketing.

Most beach resorts around the world focus their marketing campaigns around fun-in-the-sun, bikini clad women, 5-star hotels, fresh seafood, and water sports. But this market has clearly been saturated, from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean this has already been done. How is one beach town to differentiate itself from Rio, Waikiki, or Barcelona?

Well, marketing experts in Cartagena had the answer. Don't try to compete with Cancun and Kokomo, but instead create an entirely new seaside experience.

The campaign is simple and quite to the point:

Cartagena: The Tourist Capital for Geriatrics

Throughout the town big, beautiful billboards advertise a variety of very, very old people absolutely not enjoying themselves in this depressing oceanfront village. But hey, for Chileans without a car, and who happen to live in Cartagena, there's no better place to spend the summer holidays.