Glaciers in New Zealand
Maori children
Northland, New Zealand
Queen Charlotte Sound
Routeburn Track
Boating in Taupo
Tongariro, New Zealand
Wellington, New Zealand

Newsletter : March 2003

brought to you by New Zealand Tourism Guide www.tourism.net.nz

NZTO Comment

by Garry Bond, General Manager, New Zealand Tourism Guide

The world is getting a smaller place and New Zealand not only sees the benefits of this but also the negatives associated with tourism and travel. Our tourist numbers continue to rise and even in an unsettled world, New Zealand fares very well in comparison to many other countries. Sure it takes a bit longer to get here but it's worth the effort.

This increase in international visitors also has its downside and an example instantly springs to mind - the deadly pneumonia flu. This flu has been reported in Asia, Europe and North America. How long will it be before a tourist on holiday accidently brings this to New Zealand? There are also biosecurity issues in the form of the insects which seem to have infiltrated our country i.e. the Painted Apple Moth. I presume the vast majority come into this country by way of shipping, vehicle imports etc but these could also conceivably be imported via a visitor's luggage. New Zealand's unique flora and fauna plays a major part in tourism and economically it's important we protect our country from invasions by unwanted foreign organisms.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not about to advocate that we shut our doors to the world, I'm merely pointing out that we are much more susceptible to this now than we have ever been before and really it's a by-product of our tourism success. We all just need to be aware and vigilant.

Tourism News

Here's a wrap up of what's happening in tourism for March 2003.

Flying Rings - Air New Zealand have taken Middle-earth to the skies, with two of their fleet now themed with images of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and New Zealand. The planes are part of a wider campaign by Air New Zealand to promote New Zealand as the place where the filming for The Lord of the Rings trilogy took place. Working with Tourism New Zealand, the airline has reached thousands of consumers in the United States, Europe and the United Kingdom through events including mailings, in-store events and cinema promotions.

Coming Events - Hooked on Seafood, 22 Mar 03, Nelson

Showcase of Nelson and New Zealand's superb seafood, wines and local produce on the waterfront. Seafood demonstrations from New Zealand's supreme seafood chefs.

Race to the Sky, 19-21 Apr 03, Central Otago

For 3 days each year the Cardrona Valley becomes a mecca for motorsports enthusiasts to watch the sport of auto hill climbing. Official practice and qualifying takes place on Friday and Saturday, prior to the "Race to the Sky" on Easter Sunday. International competitors primarily come from USA, Japan and a few are expected from Australia this year.

India - Here we come - Tourism New Zealand has opened an office in Mumbai, India to help it tap in to India's growing travel and leisure market. Indian visitors have rapidly increased their interest in New Zealand with numbers doubling in the past two years, from just over 8,000 visitors in 2000 to close to 17,000 in 2002. Indian tourists tend to fit the profile of our 'ideal visitor', meaning they are high spenders who seek out natural attractions and scenic landscapes and enjoy adventure activities.

Quality Tourist Towns - In early February 2003 around 70 large and small businesses from throughout New Zealand had been through the full Qualmark™ quality endorsement licensing process. Operators in two of our top tourism towns - Queenstown and Rotorua – currently account for more than half of all businesses to join tourism's new quality endorsement programme since its launch last October.

Source: Tourism New Zealand Media Releases

Choosing the Right Keywords

by Mark Rocket and Nick Butler, Avatar Web Promotions

Keywords are the key to search engine optimisation. Keywords are effectively the words that people type into search engines when searching on the Web. If you don't target the keywords that your customers are searching on then your search engine optimisation efforts are being wasted.

Here are some tips for ways to find the right keywords:

  1. Put yourself in your customers' shoes. What phrase would you use if you were looking for the product or service offered by your Web site? Think like a buyer not a seller. For example, you may think of yourself as a footwear retailer but your customers are looking for a shoe shop.

  2. Choose keywords that are relevant to your site. This way you will receive quality traffic, visitors who are actively looking for what you have to offer.

  3. Avoid single words. The more general the keyword, the more intense the competition, and searchers tend to type in two or three words at a time.

  4. Don't forget plurals, compounds and synonyms and related terms. i.e. jetboating, jet boat, jet boats, jet boating, jet-boats etc.

  5. Think about including your region in the keyword phrase.

There are also some good free keyword research tools available. Some tools make suggestions based on actual phrases that Web searchers have typed into search engines. Here's a few of them.

Also Google have a useful tool for suggesting keywords.

AltaVista's Prisma search refinement tool takes a different approach. When you do a search Prisma looks at the top 50 results for that search and pulls out the twelve phrases that occur most often in these. As well as giving suggestions for possible keyword phrases this tool also gives you the chance to check out what the competition is like on these phrases. For example, a search on "auckland hotel" brings up 17,871 results but a search on the term '"auckland accommodation" brings up 157,975, meaning that the more generic "accommodation" keyword is more competitive.

HTTP 404 - File Not Found

by Mark Rocket and Nick Butler, Avatar Web Promotions

Don't you get annoyed when you surf around, click onto a Web page or site and you get the dreaded "HTTP 404 - File Not Found" message. If you have changed your site and pages have been renamed or removed, then your own Web site visitors who click on an old link may get exactly the same message. This will also occur if they mistype the URL (Web address). When this happens many visitors will simply click the back button and you've lost them.

There are a couple of things you can do to help them find what they are looking for. If you create a custom 404 page you can include HTML links to your most important pages (including your site map) or you can redirect them to your homepage.

Talk to your Web designer about these options or if you're feeling keen, you can learn how to create your own custom 404 page.

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

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