Newsletter : January 2007

NZTO Comment

by Garry Bond, General Manager, New Zealand Tourism Online

Christmas is over for another year and the summer season is well and truly upon us. All we can do now is wait expectantly for the sunny weather to become a daily feature. With this in mind don’t you think the extra 3 weeks worth of daylight saving is a good idea? There was even a news report that indicated the farmers would be too bothered by it – they too probably appreciate the extra daylight hours at the end of the day.

So how is tourism shaping up for the 2007 year? Its good news so far and from all accounts it’s positive with many operators report stronger sales and numbers than last year. The Internet will also play an increasingly large part in this continued growth. To give you an example, one US based travel company who specialises in travel to New Zealand indicated one of the issues they were facing was that potential clients used the company for advise, then make their booking on the Internet. Good for those with great Web marketing and not so good for those with a shop frontage.

Well, whatever part of the tourism industry you are associated with, have a prosperous year. New Zealand Tourism Online will continue to develop and provide innovative Internet marketing options throughout 2007.

HIGH PROFILE MARKETING - Regional Feature Spots

Looking for expanded Internet marketing? We now have a range of high profile spots within your own region. You'll have to be quick though! We have completely sold Auckland and Christchurch already but we have just added several new regions (mainly in the North Island).

North Island

• Auckland (sold out)
• Coromandel
• Bay of Plenty
• Waikato
• Rotorua (2 spots presold, 2 spots available)
• Eastland
• Taupo (1 spot sold, 3 spots available)
• Ruapehu
• Taranaki
• Hawkes Bay
• Wanganui
• Manawatu
• Wairarapa
• Wellington

South Island

• Christchurch (sold out)
• Queenstown (2 spots sold, 2 spots available)
• Dunedin

Remember if you have been looking for a high profile spot within your region to promote your business it would pay to get in now. If you are interested in other regions (mainly in the South Island), let us know and we'll do our best to make these available next.

Hot Deal

Save over $1,000 + GST on a high-profile Regional Spot designed to put you in front of your target market. Normally $1,875 + GST, we have a special deal so you pay just $795 + GST for prime positioning on www.tourism.net.nz (you'll be profiled in 5 sections within your region i.e. region info, region scenic highlights etc - see example below).

Note: We currently have place-holders for some of these spots as per image below (Travel Insurance, NZ DVDs, Products and NZ Holiday Deals). These will be removed once the spot has been sold. Also if you order early then you have a better chance to select your position i.e far left, far right, left centre, right centre etc.

Example

Click the following links which show you the coverage you'll achieve (we've used Auckland as an example).

• Auckland Region Home Page
• Auckland Region Information
• Auckland Region Activity Highlights
• Auckland Region Scenic Highlights
• Auckland Region History

While on a first in, first served basis, we will not place competing businesses next to each other, so for example, if there is already a rental car company in one of the spots, we won't place a 2nd rental car company in the same region.

Contact your tourism consultant for more information, drop us an email or call 0800 14-65-49.

MULTIMEDIA - AUDIO VISUAL Clips

A very powerful new product was launched just 8 weeks ago. It's a great new multimedia product geared towards helping you convert “lookers into bookers”. Already we have over 80 operators who now have them so they are proving very popular. So much so, that a specific audio visual directory on our site features all of these multimedia clips. As you can imagine, our site visitors find these clips very compelling.

Take a look at the audio visual directory and the variety of different tourism operators from around the country who already promote themselves through this media.

Also check out what some tourism operators are doing with the audio visual on their own site R&R Quality Campervans, Abel Tasman Apartments, James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor or the International Antarctic Centre

Remember, this audio visual product is designed to be cost effective and compelling, with the images and sound combination really helping liven up your site visitors experience. The audio visual attaches to your listing on our site and includes button options and links so you can use it on your own Web site or in emails to your customers!

Key Features

• Low cost
• Fast loading
• Communicate key messages and images in a focussed format
• Suitable for both small and larger tourism operators across all market sectors
• Very appealing to your potential customers with additional conversion opportunities
• Professionally recorded soundtrack of your key messages
• Excellent selection of background music
• Enhance your NZTO listing, see Air Fiordland listing example - Media Clip link
• Enhance your NZTO Web page if you have one, see Air Fiordland Web page example - Details Box
• Add to your own Web site after we supply you with button and text options
• Include it in your own emails to potential customers

Contact your tourism consultant or one of our specialist product Managers (Mike O'Sullivan on 0800 14-65-52 or Mike Kaye on 0800 14-65-54 for more information - yes both are called Mike). These are proving popular, so get your order in now!

Create A Search Engine Friendly Web Site

by Avatar Web Promotions

You may have heard of the expression before, but a 'search engine friendly' Web site is, in other words, a Web site that can be easily found and indexed by search engines and a Web site, which will appear as high as possible in search engine results' pages (SERPS).

Why is it important for a Web site to be search engine friendly?

It doesn't necessarily follow that every Web site is required to be search engine friendly; some businesses may not need their site to be 'found and indexed' by search engines. However, with over 6.7 billion searches conducted online in the U.S. market alone in December 2006, it's fair to say that Internet users make good use of search engines!* For those Web sites that aim to attract business from search engine users, planning a search engine friendly Web site should be at the very start (and heart) of the Web design process.

Here are 10 useful tips for building search engine friendly Web site foundations:

1. Think about search engine friendliness before starting your Web design and build.
2. Plan your Web site carefully, think about the balance between 'people friendly' and 'search engine friendly' content
3. Research your market and the words people enter (keywords) into search engines to find businesses and services relevant to yours.
4. Create search engine friendly pages, with clean and easy-to-read code and keywords located within them.
5. Provide text and lots of it because that's what search engines like! Set aside an area on your site so you can regularly publish new 'text-based' content such as articles, news and special offers.
6. Avoid frames and overly excessive use of Flash formatted content and graphics in favour of text-rich elements.
7. Position elements of a page carefully to help search engines find the core content.
8. Include a site map and clear, simple navigation (avoid complicated pop-ups, Flash and entry pages).
9. Link your text to other pages on your Web site using descriptive text (search engines like following internal, as well as external links, so make sure there are plenty of them).
10. Remember, the most successful Web sites provide useful information for people first, search engines second... so think about publishing content that people want to link to, or will send onto others and get maximum mileage from the online community spreading information for you.

These are basic search engine friendly foundations, but if you've got some, if not all of these in mind when you start planning your new Web site, you're well on the way to snuggling up with search engines!