Tourism New Zealand to capitalise on Asian boom with new campaign

Tourism New Zealand is aiming to build on a recent surge in arrivals from Asian countries with its new campaign, “Every day a different journey”.

Speaking to Travel Daily on Tuesday, Kevin Bowler, CEO of Tourism New Zealand, said the new extension of its 100% Pure New Zealand campaign was intended to broaden knowledge of the country’s destinations and attractions among Asian visitors, and encourage them to explore more parts of New Zealand.

“The 100% Pure New Zealand campaign is in its 16th year and has been very successful. Over the last three-and-a-half years we’ve been successfully leveraging the connection with Middle Earth. This new campaign is about increasing knowledge,” said Bowler.

Asked whether Tourism New Zealand considered embarking on an entirely new tourism brand, rather than extending 100% Pure New Zealand, Bowler said this was never a real possibility.

“That would be the easy option,” he said. “But the reality is that the campaign has done such a good job that the benefits outweigh the costs.”

The CEO added that while 100% Pure New Zealand is intended to describe the broader concept of “the way visitors experience New Zealand”, its literal meaning of clean air, organic food and open space is “not unhelpful” when targeting the Asian market.
And the campaign certainly appears to be resonating with Asian guests, with New Zealand experiencing increasing in arrivals from many Asian countries.

Hobbiton has been “a great success”, according to Bowler (photo by Troy Wegman)
Hobbiton has been “a great success”, according to Bowler (photo by Troy Wegman)
“We have seen extraordinary performances from China, which is up 30% (for the year ending 31 May 2015). This is a consistently growing market for us. And we’ve have really good results from Japan, up 13.5%,” said Bowler.

“Overall arrivals from Thailand are up 3.3%, but holiday arrivals are up 13.5%, and Singapore holiday arrivals are up 9.6%.” He added that Indian and Indonesian markets are also performing well.

The average length-of-stay in New Zealand is currently about 12 days, but this is weighted by the European market, which tends to stay longer in the country. Bowler said the message Tourism New Zealand is trying to send out is that visitors need more than a week, and ideally at least 10 days, if they want to explore both the North and South Islands.

“We are seeing [extended length-of-stay], especially from China,” Bowler said.”But there is still a lack of understanding about the range of products on offer.”

He added that the Hobbiton attraction has been “a great success”, while Rotorua and Queenstown remain among the most popular destinations.

New Zealand’s Asian popularity is also being fuelled by an increase in air lift. Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand recently started joint services between the two countries, and Bowler said he is hopeful that the two airlines will add more capacity in future. China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Thai Airways and Malaysia Airlines are also flying to New Zealand.

“We’ve had a spectacularly good couple of years and look positive for the next few years. We are now concentrating on the shoulder seasons, as the high season is taking care of itself,” Bowler concluded.

sourced:traveldailymedia.com