“It’s my world” accolades aplenty in China

New Zealand has shone brightly in China's 2014-2015 "It's my world" online competition, winning "Destination of the year" and "Most beautiful town" along with multiple awards in the top ten - including the "Best place to shoot a starry sky".

Run by QYER.com and Chinese National Geography magazine, the Q-LIST "It's my world" competition covered 57 topics, 158 countries and over 3000 destinations. More than 17 million votes were received during the three-month online voting period from around 415,000 QYER.com users. The competition also attracted approximately 730 million views on Weibo, one of China's largest social media sites.

Tourism New Zealand General Manager Asia, David Craig says winning the "destination of the year", alongside Japan and Thailand, is a huge coup for New Zealand and shows New Zealand's highly positive word of mouth among Chinese travellers. The result affirms Tourism New Zealand's recent research that Chinese Active Considerers' preference for travel to New Zealand is increasing over the long-term.

"The fact that New Zealand beat other popular long-haul destinations, such as France, Italy and Australia, is an impressive result and one that reflects Tourism New Zealand's long-term improvements around key brand perceptions to drive preference for New Zealand among Chinese Active Considerers," says David.

QYER.com hosts the largest Chinese outbound travel community, offering customers personalised travel products and value-added travel services for more than 4000 outbound destinations. Forty-three per cent of users live in six major cities in China, 99 per cent are intending to travel overseas and 92 per cent plan to be away for more than seven days per trip. The travel site generates the highest quality user generated content in China, with more than 8 million posts, 6.7 million photos, 600,000 topics and 10,000 daily uploads.

An important part of Tourism New Zealand's strategic marketing plan is to spread the flow of visitors to New Zealand more evenly throughout the year. The aim is to take pressure off some of our busy summer hotspots and increase visitor numbers in spring and autumn; both of which are great opportunities for our China market.

Tourism New Zealand's research shows that China represents an especially attractive market for growing visitation in autumn - a season that is favoured by more Active Considerers than the summer months. Potential autumn visitors are particularly interested to know more about the type of food they can get and the unique activities on offer, both regionally and in the main cities. Lead times are short, with nearly 80 per cent saying they would decide on and then visit New Zealand within four months.

New Zealand's awards for the 2014 Q-LIST "It's my world" competition are:
Top 3 Best Destination: New Zealand
#1 - Most Beautiful Town: Queenstown
#1 - Ultimate Experience: Skydiving in Queenstown and Top 4 Ultimate Experience: Sky Tower's SkyWalk
Top 2 - Best National Park: Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park
Top 3 - Best Place to Shoot a Starry Sky: Lake Tekapo
Top 5 - Most Beautiful Self-drive Route: South Island
Top 6 - Best Skiing Destination: Queenstown
Top 9 - Best Hiking Track, Tongario Northern Circuit

sourced:traveldailynews.asia