Tourism NZ's campaign focus
Focusing on special interest markets and stepping up efforts in Western Australia will help achieve the key aim of driving up the value of visits to New Zealand, tourism leaders have insisted.
Travel Today revealed this week that Tourism NZ will invest an additional $500,000 in promoting niche sectors with a similar amount channelled into better promoting NZ in WA.
Tourism NZ Australia general manager Tim Burgess said its “entire focus” is on value and WA and special interest tourism is “where that value is”.
WA residents spend an average of 14 days in the NZ against the Australian average of 11.1, he said.
“WA is a really good opportunity for us because they stay longer and spend more than visitors from the east coast,” Burgess told Travel Today at TRENZ in Auckland. “It’s the same with special interest activities. We know that people coming to hike, cycle, golf and fish also have a higher average spend and longer length of stay.
“It feels like common sense that we’ll look to attract more of those visitors. We believe we can do a lot better job in that space.”
Cycling will be the central plank of the special interest campaign that will kick off in November and run through the summer.
Marketing will be highly targeted, a strategy Tourism NZ has become much better at in recent times, particularly digitally, Burgess said.
The cycling campaign will focus on NZ’s cycleways – a product regularly highlighted by the country’s Prime Minister and tourism minister John Key. A dozen of 18 cycleways being developed are now open, offering 2500kms of paths across NZ.
“Cycling is the fastest growing participation sport in Australia, it’s going crazy, so it seems really obvious for us to tap into it, particularly when we have this amazing product,” Burgess said.
Tourism NZ will attend cycling expos and target cycling magazines to promote the product while Burgess said he hopes to entice a famous Australian to experience the cycleways and make a TV program.
“With a product like this you need to tell a story which is hard to do on a billboard so a TV program would work really well.”
Meanwhile, Burgess said that first timers remain a vital part of the visitor mix, arguing it can’t rely on repeat business.
Only by attracting new visitors can you grow the market, he said.
Ahead of the special interest campaign, the agency will again run its touring crusade, beginning in August.
“It promotes what a lot of Australian do on holiday in NZ which is move around the country by coach, campervan and rental car,” Burgess said.
A third wave of advertising will begin next April with a focus on the ski market. Burgess said the campaign period will be extended beyond August to attract last minute bookings.
"July and August are always busy but there is great capacity in September, with more settled weather and less crowds on the slopes,” he said.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
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