Located in Central Asia with a smaller portion west of the Urals in Eastern Europe, Kazakhstan extends from the Caspian Sea in the west to the Altai Mountains at its eastern border with China and Russia. Covering an area of 1,052,100 square miles, it is the world’s largest landlocked country and the ninth-largest country in the world.

Despite generating 60 percent of the Central Asian region’s GDP through its gas and oil industry, Kazakhstan was portrayed as a backwater country in Sacha Baron Cohen‘s 2006 film Borat. The film was banned in Kazakhstan due to stereotypes and the actions of the title character. Still, Kazakhstan reported an increase in tourism due to the film’s success.

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When the Borat sequel recently came out, Kazakhstan embraced it this time and made it part of a new tourism campaign, using Borat’s catchphrase “Very nice!” as the official new slogan. In four promotional videos, tourists are shown enjoying different aspects of Kazakhstan. At the end of each video, the tourists exclaim, “Very nice!”

The idea was proposed by Dennis Keen, an American who hosts a travel show and lives in Kazakhstan. In a press release, deputy chairman of Kazakh Tourism Kairat Sadvakassov stated, “The slogan offers the perfect description of Kazakhstan’s vast tourism potential in a short, memorable way. Kazakhstan’s nature is very nice; its food is very nice; and its people, despite Borat’s jokes to the contrary, are some of the nicest in the world.”

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When hearing of the campaign, Cohen said the films have nothing to do with the real country. He chose Kazakhstan because he felt most people in the United States wouldn’t know anything about it. Cohen emphasized the real Kazakhstan is a beautiful country.

This is a great example of turning a perceived negative into a positive. Although initially rebuked, Cohen is now responsible for others seeing Kazakhstan is “very nice.”

— John Wroblewski, online writer