Newsletter : August 2011
Written by Steph Kendall
Welcome to the New Zealand Tourism Guide www.tourism.net.nz August 2011 issue. If you have news or comments, please email us news@tourism.net.nz.
In this July newsletter:
How to Make Facebook Work for Your Business
Written by Steph Kendall
If you are keen to try out Facebook for your business, then you can either create a business account or from your personal account a 'business' page. (It's important as a business to stick to Facebook's rules so make sure you read up on them before you start.) It's also important to get your settings right, but here are a few things to start:
- Add feeds from your blog and other social media accounts (e.g. Twitter) to your Facebook profile
- Keep private parts of your personal profile, creating different audience 'lists'and limit business contacts' access to your own photos (see Facebook settings)
- Add your newsletter subscription information to your profile
- With 25 'likes' (from friends, family or business contacts), you can publish a Facebook vanity URL (one which includes your brand or business name). You can then add this to your email signature and if you really like Facebook, add it to your printed marketing literature too.
What to Publish
It's easy to think as Facebook as a way of communicating to your business market much in the same way as you would with friends and family due to its informal nature. However, it's important to remember that your Facebook page is about your business, so stick to posts relevant to your business and your real target market. Here are a few suggestions on what to publish:
- Post updates about your business : upcoming events, new staff appointments, new products and general news
- Publish links to other websites and online resources that may be of genuine interest to your market (not those which compete with yours of course). For example, you may want to post links to the latest weather in your region, an event or attraction or favourable currency rate
- Post useful customer service information such as you would publish on your website's FAQ page
- Help increase your business: Post discounts, special offers and referral incentives. By giving your Facebook audience promotional codes to use when they make their bookings with you, you can also measure how successful your Facebook page is in driving business
- You can also use Facebook advertising to promote your business. Basically this works by posting your ads on pages seen by Facebook users whose user habits suggest they're an appropriate audience. (There have been suggestions that the click through rate on Facebook ads is rather low, so it's important to keep an eye on your ROI).
Management Tips
- Don't get into trouble - View Facebook's user guidelines including their Ads & Business Solutions information to make sure you are using Facebook correctly. Check back from time to time, so you don't miss any of its latest offerings and features.
- Keep up to date – Change your offers regularly (weekly) and make sure you respond to any comments (both positive and negative).
- Measure the feedback – If you just want to keep up with the times by using Facebook, then that in itself is a perfectly legitimate reason to be using it for your business. Don't forget to check the bottom line though and monitor how much money/business a Facebook page generates for you.
Scrumdown for All Tourism Operators
Written by Steph Kendall
We've been waiting for the Rugby World Cup 2011 to hit our shores for a very long time, but now this much-anticipated event is only weeks away. (The All Blacks kick off the tournament playing Tonga on Friday 9 th September at Auckland's Eden Park.)
The Numbers Game
Latest figures provided by Martin Snedden, Chief Executive of Rugby New Zealand 2011 at a May news conference included a forecast of over 85,000 international visitors arriving for the rugby. Plus:
- Ticket sales: 789,000 of 1.35 million
- Ticket revenue: $169 million (with a target of $268 million)
- Half of all ticket holders surveyed said they intend to arrive in New Zealand before the opening match
- For 44% of visitors it will be their first visit to New Zealand
- The average length of their stay is expected to be 23 nights
- Visitors are expected to be exploring the whole country, lured by over 1,000 events making up the Real New Zealand Festival (September – October)
- FITs (free and independent travellers) were expected to account for 55,000 of rugby visitors.
Overall State of Play - Visitor Numbers for 2011
Late 2010 and 2011 has been a tough time for many in the tourism sector with falling visitor numbers due to earthquakes and ash clouds. However, reasonably good visitor numbers for 2011 are expected by New Zealand Tourism, who cite new airline links, the ski and snow season and promotion of New Zealand as a great visitor destination despite the earthquakes in Christchurch as positive influences.
Scores for May and June - Statistics New Zealand noted that just over 131,000 visitors came to New Zealand in May 2011 - some 10,000 fewer than May 2010. And also the smallest number for this time of year since 2003. Visitor numbers are increasing from China and Malaysia - with 6,740 Chinese visitors arriving in June (an increase of 23 percent from June 2010).
In short, there is less of the tourism pie available. Now more than ever your business needs to be proactive in getting a share of the action.
Get Seen on NZTG's Dedicated Rugby Pages
Talk to your NZTG consultant to get your accommodation premier listings on our World Cup Rugby Accommodation page.
Or for more information about how you can further promote your website listing with the rugby in mind, please:
- email sales.enquiry@tourism.net.nz
- or call us toll free on 0800 14 65 49.
You may also want to get your accommodation listed on a dedicated Rugby accommodation booking web page hosted by Tourism New Zealand. View details and listing requirements.
Website Marketing for Non-English Speakers
Written by Steph Kendall
PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) and comScore, a digital business analyst, recently reviewed demographic trends within the Asia-Pacific travel market (April 2011) to help tourism providers better understand the profile of Asian-Pacific web users. Below are some findings which add to our knowledge of online customers in this growth market.
- 446 million visitors worldwide (aged 15+) visited a travel website in February 2011
- Users in Asia-Pacific represented 26% of these
- Among travel sub-categories, travel information is the most popular
- Travel visitors are more likely to be over the age of 45, but more than half of travel site visitors in Asia Pacific are under 34.
The report also notes (not unsurprisingly) that business and leisure consumers are turning to the web in ever increasing numbers for: trip research, price comparison and booking.
So food for thought...
- Over 1 billion website users do not have English as their native language
- 56% of consumers think buying in their own language is more important than the price
- People tend to stay longer on websites in their own language and are four times more likely to buy from them.
What this means for your website?
With New Zealand's visitor numbers in decline, undoubtedly this seems to be a good time to look at presenting your business in an enticing and understandable way to visitors who do not understand or read English.
Here are a few suggestions to help get you thinking:
- Photographs / galleries – Add quality pictures to your website and let them do the 'talking'
- Video / vox pox - Use the voice of the people with video testimonials from real guests – don't be shy to approach your customers for a real word of mouth recommendation
- Selected content pages in other languages – Please, please note: Online translation tools will NOT really translate your existing pages effectively or professionally. You will need the services of a bona fide translation agency or linguistic contact to write these (expensive but good long-term investments)
- Search engine optimisation and online marketing for country specific markets (more on this next month).
Research Before you embark on any potentially expensive website marketing for non-English speakers, check your markets. If your customers aren't likely to arrive from Iran, forget the Azerbaijani translation!
Top Tourism Site of the Month
This month's Top Tourism Site Award goes to:
This website is getting so many things right. An eye-catching home page with gorgeous photography, clear navigation, easy to read information, testimonials and details of its latest offers in the most notable part of the page. Whilst it would be good to see some additional links within the page text to make moving around the site even quicker and easier, hats off to the team at Kiwi Discovery.
Kiwi Discovery offer Milford Sound day trips, Queenstown ski packages and unguided and guided walks for the Milford, Routeburn and Kepler tracks.
Nominate a Site
If you think a New Zealand travel or tourism website deserves a 'Top Tourism Site Award', let us know about it. (View further information about the award criteria.)
About the Top Tourism Site Award
The New Zealand Tourism Guide confers a Top Tourism Site Award to websites that:
- Enhance New Zealand as a travel destination
- Publish useful and informative content
- Are laid out in a professional and aesthetically-pleasing manner
- Are designed effectively for the World Wide Web
- May demonstrate easy functionality, interactivity, originality, outstanding graphic quality and marketing reach.
We welcome any feedback — send your comments to: news@tourism.net.nz
Kind regards,
The Team
Ph 0800 14 65 49
www.tourism.net.nz
New Zealand Tourism Guide
Head Office: Level One, 534 Colombo Street, Christchurch