Newsletter : February 2006
brought to you by New Zealand Tourism Online www.tourism.net.nz
In this February Newsletter:
- NZTO Comment
- Daylight Saving Survey
- Scam Warning
- Secure Credit Card Centre
- Balancing Paid and Organic Search Marketing Techniques
NZTO Comment
by Garry Bond, General Manager, New Zealand Tourism Online
So what's happening to our tourism industry recently? There's been media coverage about the overall drop in international visitor arrivals to New Zealand (down 2% in December 2005 compared to December 2004), while domestic tourism is also down.
Let's take a look. New Zealanders are avid travellers and let's face it, if an opportunity came up for you to nip over to Australia for a cheap week's holiday, you'd be interested, wouldn't you? In fact, there was a 23% increase in outbound travel by New Zealanders last year, compared to the previous year. On the flip side, if there are more planes going out, there are more seats available for Australians to fly in - and it's great to see the industry looking to address the "holiday in your own country before you fly off to a foreign beach" type of campaign.
In terms of attracting international visitors, New Zealand has enjoyed excellent promotion over the last few years through movies (Lord of the Rings, Whale Rider and The Chronicles of Narnia) and sporting events, such as the America's Cup. International acclaim, favourable media attention and smart marketing have all been working to the benefit of New Zealand's tourism operators.
Yes, things have flattened off overall, but it is unrealistic to expect growth upon growth, year after year. Like any business in any industry, we have to compete. Tourism New Zealand (and the government) needs to continue to think of bigger, better and more effective ways to bring people to this country. Recently New Zealand was promoted through a 14-page spread in the National Geographic, whilst travel-guide giant, Lonely Planet, rated New Zealand the second best value destination for tourists. It's all positive stuff and we’ve also got the excitement of the Rugby World Cup scrumming down on New Zealand shores in 2011!
We feel that things will continue to flourish nicely for most New Zealand tourism operators, if they retain a balanced outlook and adhere to sound business fundamentals. The best news of all? We still have the best tourism product to offer on the planet!
Daylight Saving Survey
New Zealand Tourism Online would like to conduct some research into how the tourism industry thinks it would benefit from getting daylight saving extended through until the 2nd weekend in April. Currently it finishes in the 3rd weekend of March.
Have a think about how, or if this would benefit your business. Click either option below to send us an email.
Click here for no
Click here for yes
For more information on daylight saving and how it came into law, visit this site.
If the overall results are positive and enough people reply, New Zealand Tourism Online may petition the Ministry of Internal Affairs to undertake a larger survey.
Scam Warning
With technology advancing every day, con artists continue to exploit any new opportunity to extract money out of people. To highlight a recent example, Allan Forsdick, the General Manager of Awaroa Lodge sent in this scam. It starts out normally as a request for accommodation, but gets more suspicious as you read through. We haven't edited anything (except for removing Awaroa Lodge's prices and abridging their replies). This is how "Charles" typed his emails:
Original Enquiry from Charles Taylor
From: charles Taylor [mailto:charleztaylor@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2006 5:12 PM
To: stay@awaroalodge.co.nz
Subject: RESERVATIONS
Goodday Sir/Madam,
I am Charles Taylor of BLUE TRAVELS,Lon! don .I need to book reservation for a group of 10 persons, from London coming from 10th to 30th April 2006.Get back to
me if the dates mentioned above are free,so that we can book reservations immediately.We need 5 double rooms.Also get back to me with your rates as well as the
total cost of our stay in your facility for the requested period. Thank you and have a nice day.
Kind Regards,
Charles Taylor
Awaroa Lodge Reply
Thank you for your interest in booking with Awaroa Lodge. I am happy to say that we do have availability over the dates requested, 10-30 April 2006. Our Superior Studio Suites ( per night for two persons) have a king size bed, foldout couch, spacious lounge area...
To proceed with a reservation we require your credit card number and expiry date (we do not charge a deposit but hold your card details to secure the reservation); your full contact details, and an arrival time...
Charles Taylor Reply
HELLO,
We will take 5 superior studio suite.Please do calculate the sum total cost(in Euro) of our stay in your facility as my clients are okay with the rates.
Get back to me so that we will discuss on payment.
cheers
Charles Taylor
Awaroa Lodge Reply
The total accommodation cost would be as follows:
Five (5) x Superior Studio Suites for 20 nights at NZ per night ( per room) = TOTAL NZ
To proceed with a reservation we require your credit card number and expiry date and your full contact details. With a booking of this duration and quantity, we would require an advance deposit of 20% of the total stay (NZ) by no later than one month prior to your arrival (10 March). With your authority we would take this deposit from the credit card supplied.
If a cancellation is made less than 30 days but more than 14 days prior to your arrival, a fee of 100% of the first night booked per room (NZ) will be charged to your card.
If a cancellation is made less than 14 days prior to your arrival, a fee of 100% of entire stay (NZ) will be charged to your card.
Note: The total cost will be = 17,884.53 EUR
Charles Taylor Reply
Hello,
Thanks for your reply and assistance so far.it is the Organisation policy to issue out CHECK for the services rendered.I am glad to tell you that we have concluded
payment with the guests. However, a Certified Bank check of Eur 25,000 was earlier made out. Which was meant for the ACCOMODATION, PROVISION FOR HIRING CAR, AND OTHER
NECESSARY LOGISTICS ARRANGEMENTS .
I have now been instructed to send you the draft, which will cover the cost of accommodation and all the necessary arrangement for the guests. Moreover, we also made an
arrangement with a logistics/pre paid car hiring firm who will supply the delegates with cars they will use during their stay as well as arrange for their flight
tickets.
So you are required to deduct the cost of your services Eur 17,884.53 and send the balance of Eur 7,115.47 via money gram international transfer, to the
logistics agent whose information will be forwarded to you as ! soon as possible.
So confirm this and provide me with your (1) YOUR FULL NAME/NAME THAT SHOULD BE ON THE DRAFT (2) ADDRESS (3) PHONE NUMBERS, for payment to be delivered to you via
courier.
IT IS A STANDING ORDER AND OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE THAT ALL ARRANGEMENTS SHOULD BE CONCLUDED BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF ALL THE GUESTS.
Please remember that the integrity of our agency is involved, so this business requires prompt response. I also hope the stay of the delegates will be made
comfortable.
Sincere Regards,
Charles Taylor
BLUE TRAVELS,
ADDRESS... 1 EASTON STREET
LOND0N
WC1X 0DW, UK
UNITED KINGDOM
+447040124740
+447040115736
Essentially, "Charles" wanted Awaroa Lodge to send EUR 7,115.47 (or NZ$12,674) out of the country before the guests would arrive (which of course they never would). The bank cheque for EUR 25,000 would either never materialise or bounce.
Unfortunately these types of scams are around and you need to keep an eye for them. So, what should you look out for? There are a few clues to look out for: spelling errors, text in capitals, general text and paragraph layout, use of a free email service and account, use of incorrect telephone numbers, suspiciously prestigious and expensive office location, extended period of accommodation required and the number of rooms required. (Scammers don't go to all this trouble to make just a few hundred dollars.)
P.S. We tried calling the numbers for "Blue Travels" and they were not connected, which was not surprising as the area codes for London were incorrect.
Secure Credit Card Centre
This new free service is for those of you who have a bronze, silver or gold listing on the www.tourism.net.nz Web site. It's proving to be very popular. If you aren't familiar with the Secure Credit Card Centre, then here's the information again.
One major benefit is that it allows your potential clients to provide their credit card details to you in a secure and protected environment. This is ideal if you don't currently have any way to obtain credit card details securely (many people won't fax or send these details by ordinary email). To date over 800 people have added credit card details to their enquiries in the last three to four weeks.
“Just a word of thanks for the secure online booking form option. It works a treat and makes my online credit card bookings so much simpler and worry-free
for my clients. This is a huge advantage and saves me hundreds of dollars to have an imbedded credit card facility on the Web site.”
Phil Parker, Fine Wine Tours
And best of all it's easy to use! You simply provide the personalised link we have specifically designed for your business. Copy this into your email when replying to potential clients and/or add it to your Web site. You can get your personalised link by logging in to the secure credit card facility.
Please note that when using the registration and password pages the 'Company' name must be your listing title on our site and the 'Email' must be the same as your enquiry email address as setup with New Zealand Tourism Online.
Note: Do not be concerned if you have a problem registering as you will not miss any credit card details. If you choose not to register, an account will be automatically created for you should someone send you a credit card based enquiry from our site.
Remember that if you have been sent an enquiry with credit card details, it is stored in the secure credit card facility and will be automatically deleted after 30 days. It's best if you log in and delete them so you are in control of this function.
P.S. In order to help strengthen our mutual tourism network community we do ask that you add a link from your site to ours if you don't already have one. Click here to get your member shield, a reciprocal link or our new map link.
Balancing Paid and Organic Search Marketing Techniques
by Steph Beecher, Avatar Web Promotions
Are you wondering whether to spend your online marketing dollar on optimisation or paid search listings?
Paid search listings, such as those generated by Google Adwords or Yahoo! Sponsored Search, can be useful for Web sites wanting to achieve search engine coverage immediately. Paid listings can be viewed just five minutes after accounts and campaigns are set up and top positions can be achieved by outbidding competitors on specific keyword searches.
Web site optimisation is a more long-term online marketing strategy which requires time, dedication and patience, but it can reap great rewards with high rankings on search engine results pages. The listings on these pages are generally known as 'organic', because they are achieved 'naturally' — the search engines award Web sites with high listing positions due to their own measure of relevancy factors, such as Web site content and link popularity.
Here's a few reasons why organic marketing techniques are useful:
- Organic listings have been proven to be more cost-effective than paid listings.
- Organic listings are more likely to generate click-throughs from search engine users than paid listings as they are generally considered to be more reliable, having earned rather than paid for their ranking positions.*
- Generally speaking, search engines favour well-constructed, well-written and legitimately optimised Web sites and reward these efforts with high organic rankings.
* According to Jupiter Research, over 80% of clicks on search engine results pages go to organic listings rather than paid ads. The Golden Triangle theory examines the way in which people view organic listings on Google search results pages and reveals that fewer people look at paid listings.
However, paid search listings do have their place and can be extremely useful for getting search engine coverage in competitive industries and for competitive, generic keyword phrases. Setting up a campaign in the most effective way, with dedicated advertising pages and results tracking for example, is crucial to your monetary success.
If you are interested in organic optimisation or paid search for your Web site, please read more about Avatar search marketing services.
We welcome any feedback or contributions for our next newsletter — email : news@tourism.net.nz
Regards,
The Team
Ph. 0800 14 65 47
https://www.tourism.net.nz
New Zealand Tourism Online Limited
Head Office: 208 Cashel Street, Christchurch
