Newsletter : September 2008

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

NZTO Comment

by Garry Bond, General Manager, New Zealand Tourism Online

We survived. With the media reporting lowering house sales and general tightening in the economy, it's great to see our industry is robust enough to continue moving forward. And there are good news stories. With just over 70,000 Australians who participated in snowsports during their New Zealand holiday in the year to March 2008 - that's a gain of 30 percent on the previous year.

Tourism New Zealand's What's On campaigns have run during the winter season for the past two years, but their latest advertising activity has been created to take advantage of the season's record snow falls.

"The New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2015 highlights the need for the tourism industry to stimulate demand outside the peak season. The What's On campaign is designed to show the range of activities available in New Zealand at different times of the year and encourage travel in the shoulder and off-peak seasons," said Mr O'Connor.

And how about the credit crunch in the US? Over the last few years there's been a war, SARS and the bird flu. Stuff comes up all of the time and New Zealand is lucky enough to be resilient and continues to be a popular travel destination. We are a positive breed overall and I'm sure you'll agree that with the lower mortgage rates, lower petrol prices and more sunshine, we all look forward to a good summer. We've also got an election to participate in.

STRAW POLL: Which party will you vote for? Email me with the party name or if you are undecided. I'll publish the results in October. PS: I have no party affiliations but I'm interested in what the tourism industry thinks will be the outcome.

WOW

An media release from Tourism New Zealand.

With a record number of international entries, judges and media the Montana World of Wearable™ Art (WOW®) Awards Show entered its twentieth year in global style.

This year an unprecedented third of all garments hail from international designers, from countries as far afield as the UK, US, India, Japan, Thailand, Germany, Israel and Canada.

The event displayed a special showcase dress created for Paris Fashion Week by Indian designer Manish Arora.

As a sponsor of WOW since 2001, Tourism New Zealand has helped build the profile of this premier art event internationally by hosting international media and working closely with designers and design students in the markets in which it operates.

Tourism New Zealand hosts 11 international publications for WOW this year, as well as the BBC and German television network ZDF. These publications and programmes will reach an audience of over 200 million, with ZDF alone likely to be watched by over 100 million people in Europe.

Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive George Hickton says, "WOW is an ideal opportunity for us to show our international audiences that New Zealand is more than just its landscapes; we are a vibrant nation with a sophisticated art scene and an entrepreneurial spirit. There is no other event quite like this and the media love that."

Tourism New Zealand's relationship with one of India's best-loved fashion designers, Manish Arora, has resulted in the loan of a prestigious showcase garment for the Montana WOW® Awards Show in 2008.

Decorated with over 1,000 hand-embroidered butterflies, which were hand sewn onto the dress by 10 craftspeople, the 'Butterfly Dress' was created for last year's Paris Fashion week.

As the garment is very intricate and best enjoyed close up it will not appear in the show but will be on display in the foyer of the TSB Bank Arena for the Montana WOW® Awards Show Season, which begins on 25 September. It will then be on display in the WOW museum in Nelson for six months.

Featured Operator

Budget New Zealand is a recognised leader in the rental car industry, offering excellent rates on late model vehicles. Budget understands the needs of today's corporate and leisure travellers and provides a quick and easy online booking option and access to special online rates and discounts.

• Book online and receive a further discount on the best rate of the day
• Simple three step booking process
• Create, amend, or cancel reservations online
• Wide range of vehicle options available so you can select the right car for your needs
• All Budget rentals are covered by 24 Hour AA Roadside Assistance
• Late model – low kilometre vehicle fleet
• Value for money – Budget drives your dollar further

Visit Budget Car Rentals for the best deals on rental cars.

Web Marketing Options

It's coming up to the busy season and now is a great time to market yourself. New Zealand Tourism Online provides tourism operators with an extensive range of advertising solutions, from simple listings to engaging audio-visual presentations.

As we have a huge profile in search engines, and about 200,000 unique visitors every single month, advertising on New Zealand Tourism Online effectively means quality traffic is being driven to your door.

SPECIAL DEAL --> Buy any one of the feature positions before the end of October 08 and get an extra month for free.

Have a look at the many options. There are some excellent marketing spots including:

Major Category Feature Spot – Only 4 spots

For a higher profile, consider adding a Major Category Feature spot listing (limited options – please check with us). This can appear in a major category such as Transport. Only your business is featured so it's exclusively yours for the listing period.

Example: Accommodation

Map Category Feature Spot – High Profile

Maybe you want to be profiled in your own category, such as boutique and heritage accommodation or scenic tours? Only your business is featured so it's exclusively yours for the listing period. Map Category Feature spot listings provide great exposure on the map page.

Example: Apartments

Activities Feature Spot – Ideal for Attractions and Activities

Feature your business on a visitor information page specific to your attraction or activity e.g. bungy jumping, horse riding or even weddings. Only your business is featured so it's exclusively yours for the listing period. Great opportunity to get an Activities Feature spot so your business is in front of those who want to know more.

Example: Bungy Jumping

Regional Feature Spot – Regional Exposure

For visitors who want to know more about a region, what there is to do, its history and scenic highlights, why not grab a Regional Feature spot? A maximum of 4 spots are available per region. Some regions are fully booked already so please check or ask us.

Example: Auckland

Driving Route Feature Spot – Great for Accommodation or Rental Cars/Motorhomes

Ideal if you wish to target those visitors who are self-driving around New Zealand. Two different feature spots are available. The Driving Route Feature spot is a large feature which rotates (a max of 4 spots) while the Driving Route Details spots cover an actual driving route between two cities in detail (a max of 4 spots).

Example (Driving Route Feature): Auckland

Example (Driving Route Details): Auckland-Rotorua-Wellington

Audio Visual Clip (AV) – Very Popular

According to the latest PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Trends Survey, nine out of ten online travel buyers (89%) say travel-related podcasts or online video influence their travel purchases. Join the 100's of tourism operators who already have an Audio Visual clip. A highly professional studio recorded multimedia clip is personalised for your business. Very cost effective.

Note: New Zealand Tourism Online produce a Yellow Pages version of this AV and are selling heaps of them!

Example: Audio Visual Directory

BUY or CHECK AVAILABILITY SPOT

Simply email us to order or to check the availability (give us the details of what you are interested in), contact your tourism consultant directly or call us on 0800-14-65-49.

Building a Web Site?

It is not just a Web Site. It is where the bricks-and-mortar world meets the clicks-and-mortar world, and your Web Site has an impact on your company image and reputation. Your online market presence must meets the expectations of your site visitors. A visit to your site must not only meet the visitor's needs, but also to ensure return visits. After all, what good is your site if you only get someone to stop by once and never return again (although gaining a booking is good result). There are many different objectives and strategies for various Web Sites, but one fundamental objective is to have visitors bookmark the site and return again.

So how can you satisfy your visitors' needs and increase the frequency of visits from the same visitors? There is no magic formula or secrets that will do it. However, laying the foundation of your site by answering five basic questions prior to building your site will allow you to develop an online presence that meets your business goals and encourages visitors to return to your site.

The five questions to be answered are:
1) Who is your target audience,
2) What are your Web Site objectives ,
3) What does a visitor expect from your site,
4) What do you want the visitor to leave with, and
5) Why should a visitor return to your site?

Defining the Target Audience

The Web gives people access to information at their convenience. Knowing who your target audience is a crucial step that needs to be clearly defined prior to developing site content or design. By knowing who your audience is you can answer the five questions that lay the foundation for your Web Site with greater accuracy. In fact, the better you know who your audience is and what they expect to get from a visit to your site, the more relevant you can make your site.

Many Web Sites are designed to cater to the needs of a mass audience. Take a quick look at most Web Sites and you will find the standard out-of-the-box Web Site package with six pages—including “Who we are”, ”What we do”, and “links”. In order to satisfy the dramatically different needs of a wide variety of people, Web developers create a generic site that provides no real value for the visitor or the company. The visitor does not find relevant information, and decides that the Web Site is not adequate for his needs. No bookmarks are made and the visitor never returns. The company (site owner) gets some level of activity as measured by hits and page views, but never builds any loyalty to the site so nearly all visitors are first-time, last-time visitors.

Who is your target audience?

Defining the target audience and their needs is an important first step in building your Web Site and a critical element to increasing the loyalty on your site. Who are the people that will use your Web Site? Engineers that require technical data or travellers looking for specific information about accommodation options?

How do they like to receive and use the information they collect on the Internet? Is the visual impact more important or less important to effectively delivering your message? How can your site help satisfy the needs of your target audience?

You can see that knowing your target audience is much more than figuring out the demographics like gender, age, education level and income. Knowing your audience is the only true way to provide relevant content the way your audience wants to receive it. Define your target audience and get to know them better than your competitors. After all, the only sustainable competitive advantage is the understanding you have of your customers that your competitors do not have.

What are your Web Site objectives?

Is it already obvious to you why you need a Web Site? For many companies it is not so much a clear strategy as it is wanting to keep up with the Jones'. “Our biggest competitor has a Web Site and we don't want to seem like they can do something we can't”. If this is your reasoning for embarking on an e-commerce initiative, you need to take a step back and consider what a Web Site could offer your customers that is of true value—rather than to forge ahead with no direction.

There are many reasons for building a good online presence that compliments or enhances your existing offline presence. For many companies, the primary justification for launching a Web Site is because everybody else has one.

One of the most basic reasons for building an online presence is that a Web Site serves as one more tool for communicating with your internal and external audiences cost-effectively and conveniently. Cost-effective in the sense that the Internet has allowed small, capital-limited businesses the chance to look a lot bigger than they really are—opening the door to an expanded marketplace. Small businesses are no longer restricted by their location and ability to touch the customer personally. Now, with an online presence that delivers targeted communications you can drive in traffic and connect with customers that would have been cost-prohibitive to reach using traditional marketing tools.

There are many reasons why your company should have a presence on the Web. However, the only ones that matter are those that are customer focused. This channel of communication saves time for the visitor and permits access to information. It also provides the ability for your company to capture information on your site visitors to build customer profiles and better serve your customers.

What does a visitor expect from your site?

If you have already developed an understanding of your target audience, managing the expectations of your site visitors becomes second nature. However, it is important to take the customer's perspective to adequately define what your visitors expect from your site. Most Internet users will expect an easy to navigate site as well as relevant information that makes their lives easier. These expectations go hand-in-hand with the assumption that your site will load quickly. The average Internet user will wait no more than eight seconds before jumping to another page or stopping altogether if the page is its too slow to open.

Beyond this, depending on your business and target audience, some users will want to be entertained and be dissatisfied if the entertainment value does not meet their expectations. Others will look for ordering information, pre-sales services, and company information. The expectations will vary from person to person, but if you have defined your target audience into the smallest segment possible (with the goal of a market segment of one), you will be able to meet your visitors' expectations in both content and design of your Web Site.

What do you want the visitor to leave with?

Once you have a solid understanding of what your site visitors expect from your site, you need to determine what it is that you want the visitor to leave with after visiting your Web Site. Are you attempting to reduce the sales cycle time and want to ensure that your customer's questions about your product or service are answered? Or are you looking to improve your brand image and need to find ways to enhance your offline brand online? Depending on your goals, you will want to develop different strategies for different goals.

Ask yourself what it is that you want your visitors to leave with and then consider whether you can address those needs with a focus on content or on design of the site. Most likely you will want to provide a combination of rich content that helps satisfy customer needs complemented by a good Web Site design that allows the user to find the information or conduct the enquiry, contact or booking quickly and easily.

Why should someone return to your site?

Is there any good reason that a visitor should bookmark your site so that he will return again? If not, what needs to be improved within your site plan that will encourage repeat visits? Whatever the objectives and reasons are for creating an online presence for your company, if you are not driving people back to your site, your Web Site efforts may be in vain. After all, why spend the time and money on developing a site if its only purpose is to keep your competition up to speed on what you are doing and how you market your business?

By asking yourself, “Why should someone return to my site?” you are forcing yourself to take a hard look at your Web Site initiative and the justification for the investment. Developing loyalty from your customers through your online activities will be seen in your offline revenues and profits. Providing relevant information, making it easier for your customer to do her job, and creating a compelling site are some basic tactics that will encourage people to return to your Web Site. Determining what it is that is of value to your target audience will be the cornerstone of your Web activities.