Newsletter : March 2006
brought to you by New Zealand Tourism Online www.tourism.net.nz
In this March newsletter:
NZTO Comment
by Garry Bond, General Manager, New Zealand Tourism Online
Daylight saving has been in place since 1974 and the Department of Internal Affairs has conducted various surveys of public attitudes towards it every five years or so. At New Zealand Tourism Online, we thought it was time to revisit attitudes towards it again. Late last month, we asked you to vote if you believed daylight saving should be extended through to the second Sunday in April and to say what you thought the benefits would be. Daylight saving currently finishes on the third Sunday in March.
In previous surveys conducted by the Department of Internal Affairs, the feedback has been positive, which ensured daylight saving was continued or extended. Likewise, the New Zealand Tourism Online survey resulted in 92% of respondents voting in favour of extending the daylight saving period. Now, we can't change the law with wishful thinking, but at least the results of our survey indicate to us that it's worth pushing the idea forward.
Many of the tourism operators who responded felt that the main benefit would be extended daylight hours in which visitors could enjoy the country; with some attractions being able to extend their operating hours.
From my point of view, when daylight saving finishes, there's a feeling that winter is well on its way. With good weather in March and April, why shouldn't we look at extending the autumn season? After all, in Tourism New Zealand's February edition of Tourism News, there was an article about making good use of the shoulder seasons. In fact, there have been several campaigns to attract visitors to New Zealand in the spring, and several years ago the Rough Guide published a Spring Guide to New Zealand.
Overall, I feel New Zealand would benefit economically if daylight saving was extended for a few more weeks, and I'm sure people outside the industry would love to be able to enjoy daylight hours for a bit longer too.
Note: Inspired by our original survey, The Christchurch Press and several other media outlets have picked up the story. New Zealand Tourism Online have also passed on the results to TIANZ and have contacted the Ministry of Tourism.
Making the Most of Email Enquiries
My experience, shared by many others, is that few businesses respond to email enquiries about their services satisfactorily. You should endeavour to make the most of your email opportunities and try to convert enquiries into sales.
Go Beyond the Basics
When you answer an enquirer's question, you have a fantastic opportunity to reinforce the virtues of your business. So compose your email reply into succinct (bullet) points and provide an overview of what you can offer the enquirer.
Make Managing Your Email Replies Easy
Keep two appropriate email responses in a place that's easy to get to (one for a summer orientated enquiry and the another for winter). This will save you considerable time and you can customise your answers into these email templates.
Top Tips for Your Emails
Here are a few tips to ensure you keep on top of your emails and to make them professional in both appearance and response.
- Address Your Reply
Write your email to the person who wrote to you and make sure you spell their name correctly. - Subject Line
Make the subject line of your email meaningful, so your recipient doesn't mistake your mail for spam. - Images
Images speak all languages. You may want to include a small image in your email to add colour and interest. It may also help to sell your services. - Web Site Address
Always include your Web site address in your email signature — this helps the enquirer to find your Web site again.
Upsell Your Services
Make the most of a 'hot lead' and try to turn a one or two night booking into multiple nights. This applies mainly to accommodation providers, but could also apply to other operators. You could consider offering the Web site addresses of local attractions, which may encourage your guests to extend their stay. They'll certainly get the impression that you'll be a good host.
Don't Forget Your Follow Up
Don't assume that no response means that enquirer is no longer interested. Make allowances for people's busy schedules, but don't let possible interest die! Email them again and ask them if they want any more information. Use another email templated reply and it won't take you much longer than licking a stamp!
It's important you don't fritter away your chances of success by failing on the "run to the tape". Make the most of those precious email enquiries!
Who's Who? - Be Aware
We, at New Zealand Tourism Online, www.tourism.net.nz, are justly proud of our name. From small beginnings in the 1990s, we have worked to build up our brand, image, reputation and Web site to a professional, award-winning standard. So, it's important that you do not confuse us with other organisations that may have a similar name and/or Web site address.
Recently, we talked to tourism operators who marketed their business on another Web site thinking they were marketing their site through New Zealand Tourism Online. Please ensure that if you are contacted by any other organisation, you check their credentials carefully. The last thing we want is for you to be misinformed or disappointed with your marketing decision because you thought you were dealing with us.
If you have had a bad experience in this area, we'd like to hear from you. Drop us an email and tell us when it happened, who the company was and any other relevant details.
Thanks!
From the Team at www.tourism.net.nz New Zealand Tourism Online
Are "No Referrers" Part of Your Web Site Traffic?
Do you know how your Web site is performing for your business? If not, you need to get access to your Web site statistics. Amongst other things, your site statistics can give you a good idea of:
- How much traffic your site gets
- Where your site traffic comes from
- What keyword phrases search engine users are using to find your site
- The days of the week that people are visiting your site on
- How long they are staying on your site for
- Which pages of your site they visit
- Which country your traffic comes from
Without this knowledge, you're opening your door for business without ever really knowing how many people come in or what they do once they're inside.
How are people coming to your site? One important part of Web site statistics is the tracking component. This indicates how visitors are finding their way to your site. The means by which your site visitors arrive is commonly known in site statistics as the site's "referrers". Referrers may be search engines (such as Google, MSN or Yahoo!) or links from other site that visitors have clicked on to get to your site. One particular name that often appears in site statistics, however, is called "No Referrer".
What does "No Referrer" mean? When a visitor to your site comes through a Web page link or search engine, a referrer URL will be recorded in your log files. "No Referrer" can be recorded due to a combination of several factors:
- People are accessing your site via a bookmark, which is definitely a good thing!
- Your Webpage has been set as the default home page that opens when the Web browser is opened (this often done by employees).
- Visitors are manually entering a URL. If people are remembering your URL and entering it into a Web browser to return to your site, this probably means you've got some loyal customers. (If a person copies and pastes a URL into his or her browser's address box, this has the same effect.)
- Click-throughs from newsletters (except perhaps from Web-based e-mail systems) show up as "No Referrer" since they have no Webpage URL. If you publish an e-zine, it is desirable to have lots of click-throughs from readers.
As a rule of thumb, the higher the percentage of "No Referrers," the more your customers are interacting with your site and returning to it, because they like what you offer. So long as you're getting a good number of unique visitors (not just you and your employees), this is wonderful news. Keep up the good work!
If you want to get the inside track on your No Referrers, contact whoever hosts your Web site and ask for access to these statistics (they should provide a Web address and password information). It should be free!
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
