Newsletter : August 2002
brought to you by New Zealand Tourism Guide www.tourism.net.nz
NZTO Comment
by Garry Bond, General Manager, New Zealand Tourism Guide
According to statistics 1 in 10 people are now employed in the tourism and travel industry in New Zealand. These people work directly or indirectly in this field (tour guides, coach drivers, hotel receptionists, itinerary planners, catering, cleaners, travel agents, ski operators etc). The industry continues to contribute large amounts to the New Zealand economy (estimated at $14 billion) and increasing numbers of visitors continue to arrive. I guess it isn't surprising then that there also seems to be a corresponding upturn in the number of tourism and travel courses available.
In itself this is fine but has anyone gone out to the market and asked how many more staff tourism and travel companies need? Are training institutes just jumping on the bandwagon and adding courses because it's another income generation tool. Are students expectations being met or are they finding it difficult to get jobs when they finish their course? I'm not sure about other tourism businesses but I get quite a few calls from students who have various qualifications looking for an opening. I don't doubt that student qualifications are important in some parts of the industry but I wonder how many tourism operators actually require qualifications to fill their positions? After all not everyone is a travel agent or requires knowledge of booking systems. And how is the recent Air NZ change going to effect job numbers? Traditional travel agents have now lost what was probably a regular income for booking domestic air fares and unless they can offset this loss elsewhere their need for staff will be dramatically reduced. Food for thought.
Are you a winner?
New Zealand Tourism Guide strives to add as much value to your membership as possible. We continue to grow and we appreciate your continued support. By way of thanking you we have put all members into a draw and the winner will have their membership extended by a 6 month period for free.
Winner: Skylink - Josephine Siddalls
If you are a winner, please email web@tourism.net.nz or call Garry on (03) 379 4886 and we will confirm the details with you.
America's Cup Promotion Update
The America's Cup section is going well with advertising spots filling fast as we get closer to the start of racing. If you are interested now would be the time to contact us as many tourism businesses are taking positions on the page for the entire period.
We have priced these competitively and spots start at just $10 + GST per week. If you are looking at maximum exposure up to and during this highly international event, then please call 0800 14 65 47 or email today for more information.
International Search Engine Optimisation
by Mark Rocket, Avatar Web Promotions
Increasingly many Web site owners, especially tourism related businesses, are targeting non-English speaking Internet users. To do this effectively involves translating some, or all, of your English content into the target language. Then you need to do keyword optimisation before submitting to the appropriate regional directories and search engines. We recommend that you use search engine specialists for each language / country you are targeting.
Of course, once you start generating non-English speaking traffic to your site then you are likely to receive enquiries in languages other than English. If you do not have the resource to respond inhouse, then you'll need to talk to your regional search engine specialist for advice on how to handle these enquiries.
Find below a few companies that may be able to help you.
Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Taiwan and Asia: | 123promotion.com |
German: | www.1a-topranking.de |
Dutch: | www.whitelines.nl/html/promotion.html |
New Accommodation Web site launched
New Zealand Tourism Online has just launched a brand new Web site dealing specifically with New Zealand Accommodation. This site does not detract from the main tourism Web site www.tourism.net.nz which continues to build traffic but adds to the overall Internet marketing strategy.
Visit www.tourism.gen.nz and have a good look around. Listing your accommodation business on this site is $225 + GST for a 12 month period.
This is a strictly limited offer and expires August 30th 2002. Call 0800 14 65 47 or email for more information.
Note: If you aren't an accommodation business - don't worry - we are about to launch an additional 3 new sites - NZ Attractions, NZ Tours and NZ Transport and we will update you as soon as these are ready to view. We may be able to provide the same sort of deal so stay tuned.
Sites that search engines ignore
by Mark Rocket, Avatar Web Promotions
Search engines send robot and spider programs around sites to collect keywords for search engines. But there are certain sites that these e-creatures avoid like the plague.
Search engines are programmed to decide your site's value on merit, popularity and quality optimisation. Some are quite strict.
For instance, Google may penalise your site if it contains:
- Hidden text (text the same colour as your background)
- Pages and domains with duplicate content
- Some types of automatic page redirects
- Cloaking (sneaky programming to cheat engines)
- Gratuitous keyword repetition
- Linking to sites that Google has previous banned
- Resubmitting too frequently
The bottom line is that you need to be careful not to fall into these common pitfalls. I'm frequently talking to site owners that have been recommended to use one or more of these techniques by people that only half know what they're talking about it. A small amount of knowledge can be dangerous!
We welcome any feedback — send your comments to: news@tourism.net.nz
Regards,
The Team
Ph 0800 14 65 49
www.tourism.net.nz
New Zealand Tourism Guide
Head Office: Christchurch