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Newsletter : May 2004

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

In this May Newsletter:

• NZTO Comment
• New Web Site Features
• Tourism Trade
• Free: Advertise for Staff
• Web Site Statistics
• Titbits

NZTO Comment

by Garry Bond, General Manager, New Zealand Tourism Online

Is there room for more business? That's the question I asked myself as it was announced another hotel was to be built (this time in Christchurch). With the buoyant tourism market and supposedly around 15,000* odd tourism operators in New Zealand, is there room for more tourism companies overall?

With tourism shaping up to be one of this countries biggest money spinners I don't blame people for wanting to get in on the action. After all business is business and where there's an opportunity there will always be people looking to capitalise on it. But can they make it when, in some sectors of the market, it looks like there are enough players already?

Well the answer depends on many factors including future visitor numbers, visitor spend, local and international tourism marketing and the global tourism climate. If the business has found a new niche market to tap into then existing levels will probably see it through OK, but in particularly tight markets such as accommodation, a business is likely to want to see tourism growth continuing for several years. At the end of the day however, tourism is like any other business and you have to find your market, assess your competitors and calculate the risks.

Will it all end in tears? Let's hope not. As long as New Zealand can continue to attract tourists then the natural growth in tourism companies will continue.

* This number will also include many tourism businesses that are part time or seasonal operations. The number of full time operators is likely to be around half this number. New Zealand Tourism Online currently has over 10,000 tourism operators listed on its site, with more being added every week.

New Web Site Features

Continued development on the www.tourism.net.nz Web site has resulted in several changes recently. Here's a summary.

For those tourism operators who have a Gold, Silver or Bronze feature with us, it's all good news. You now get double the exposure as you have now been added to our feature sites section. Check out your own listing here. In addition you also now get a page icon just under your Gold, Silver or Bronze star in the main directory.

For those who don't know, a featured listing now consists of..

• A Web page (sharp design)
• Extra listings in the feature Web site section (more exposure)
• An icon against your listing (gives a lift to your listing)

The Web page also has the added benefit of being independently found via search engines. New Zealand Tourism Online has such a strong search engine presence, those tourism operators with one of our Web pages can often find themselves elevated within Google, MSN, Yahoo etc.

If you aren't sure if you have a featured listing with us or would like to know more about getting one, then simply email us.

Qualmark and Quotes/Bookings

Due to demand we have now added Qualmark Ratings and a Quotes/Bookings link that can be displayed with your listing. There is a nominal amount of $25 for each line to get them added to your listing (renewable yearly). If you have a Qualmark Rating you feel needs to be seen or have your own booking or quoting system that we can link to, then please email us. Here's an example for Aspiring Campervan Park in Wanaka.

Top Spots

We can now display your business at the top of a single page or across an entire section. There's only one spot per page so email us as soon as possible if you'd like to know more. These are currently only available in the Accommodation section of our Web site. Pelorus Lodge at the top of the Exclusive Luxury section is an example.

For more information on any of these developments please click any of the email us links above or call toll free on 0800 14 65 49.

Tourism Trade

Another new site development is our Tourism Trade links on the side menu. This can be found on any page on our site. This makes it easier for tourism operators and members of our Web site to access items specifically for the industry. Note too that our business site is now also available from this menu making it simpler for you to access. Many sections of the Business site can however only be used if you are a member of New Zealand Tourism Online.

Free: Advertise For Staff

Don't forget about our new "Tourism Jobs" section which has been designed with you in mind. It's free for you to advertise in! Just another service we provide for our members.

Searching for "tourism jobs New Zealand" or "travel jobs New Zealand" in google results in us being placed number 1 and number 2 respectively.

If you are running an advert wanting a chef, coach driver, japanese guide, receptionist or anything else connected to tourism and travel, then simply give us the details and we will place your advert in our tourism jobs section for free. This job section is promoted on our home page and via our menu links so it's seen by plenty of people. Have a look.

If someone else in your company (internally or externally) deals with the staff side of the business, then pass this on to them. We will be more than happy to place your requirements for staff up on our site. The only criteria is that you are a current member with us.

To place a free advert please click here or simply access via the business site at any stage.

Note: We state that international applicants must be able to legally work in New Zealand.

Web Site Statistics

New Zealand Tourism Online recently had a minor problem with some clients Web statistics packages incorrectly counting less click-thus to their Web sites from www.tourism.net.nz. The Web statistics anomalies occurred from around December 2003 until April 2004 and although actual numbers of visitors to our site hadn't changed (around 35,000 per week) we felt it was important to let our people know.

The problem occurred when we made changes to our Web site. In the lead up to Christmas 2003 we realised some search engines, including Google, were not registering backward links to client Web sites (backward links are important for helping raise clients profiles in search engines). As a result, we changed how our "jump.cgi" tracker was used and improved the search engines backward links.

The unfortunate side-effect was that visitors using Internet Explorer, (which is most people these days), no longer passed on which site they had come from (their http referrer). Links from the tourism.net.nz search engine and from Netscape Web browsers were tracked properly, so around 1% to 5% of tourism.net.nz visitors were tracked correctly - making the number of referrers from the tourism.net.nz site look very low. The visitors were still coming through from tourism.net.nz but Web statistics packages just weren't able to identify which site they originated from.

During April the problem was identified and amended with the cooperation of a number of clients (thanks to Dennis at Scenic Pacific Tours and Lakki at TourCoNz). A related problem with the enquiry bar also affected some Web statistics programs which interpreted the visitor as an email link and only counted it once per month.

New Zealand Tourism Online wishes to apologise if this has caused any inconvenience.

Tidbits

We haven't got much room left in this newsletter so here's a few interesting titbits.

• Ask the Experts. Search engines are getting better and the release of each new algorithm makes it easier to actually find the stuff you want. However there is no substitute for asking a real person a direct question and that's exactly what you can do at 'Ask the Experts'. This vast interactive forum is staffed by thousands of volunteers who also happen to be experts in their chosen fields. Ask an expert at AllExperts



• Phishing Scams Skyrocketing. Phishing involves sending emails which look like they come from well-known business and which ask for your passwords etc. The Anti-Phishing Working Group reports that these scams skyrocketed

We welcome any feedback or contributions for our next newsletter - just email garry@tourism.net.nz

Regards,

The Team
Ph. 0800 14 65 47
http://www.tourism.net.nz
New Zealand Tourism Online Limited
Head Office: 208 Cashel Street, Christchurch

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