Newsletter : July 2012
Written by Steph Kendall
Welcome to the New Zealand Tourism Guide www.tourism.net.nz July 2012 issue. If you have news or comments, please email us news@tourism.net.nz.
In this July newsletter:
New Zealand Hiking Promoted to Japanese
The combined efforts of Tourism New Zealand and Air New Zealand have helped to result in some extensive media coverage in Japan this year. Japan has one of the largest active hiking populations in the world and is home to the 'Yama Girl' mountain fashion trend. (This trend encourages active, urban Japanese women to 'enjoy the outdoors in a skirt'. It is not as flimsy as it sounds with major outdoor wear brands such as Berghaus designing clothes specifically for the Japanese female active clothing market).
Media coverage in Japan has included:
- One hour TV travel show featuring hikes around the Coromandel, Rotorua, Mt. Tarawera and various South Island locations in search of relaxing hot springs (16 million viewers)
- Magazine feature on the Auckland region including day hiking ideas and trips (circulation 100,000)
- Release of the first New Zealand interactive iPad magazine application with a hiking theme. The free download features integrated photos, stories, video and music.
- Hollyford Track photographed with popular Japanese actor, Taro Yamamoto by Images Japan and featured in outdoor magazine, Randonee with outdoor role model and blogger, Yuri Yosumi (role model of Yama girls)
- Six-page story in Brutus on New Zealand's famous one-day walk through the Tongariro Crossing (circulation 100,000).
Famous hikes in New Zealand have also been mentioned in other outdoor magazines and a television series plans to feature New Zealand's most popular treks and alpine tour courses later in the year.
Australians to Walk All Over Us
A series of walking tracks was opened in December 2011 linked together as 'Te Araroa - The Long Pathway'. This lies at the heart of a new campaign being launched in the build up to the spring tourist season by Tourism New Zealand which invites Australians to 'walk all over us'. Stretching across 3,000 kilometres, Te Araroa runs the length of New Zealand and offers a diverse selection of short and long walk options.
Tourism New Zealand's General Manager Australia Tim Burgess says the campaign has been designed to tap into a highly engaged segment of the Australian market. "Nearly half of our target audience of active considers say they would specifically plan an overseas hiking holiday. Of those, 84 per cent said they would participate in a scenic bush walk while overseas. Partnering this high level of interest with our well-known product makes sense and will maintain visitor arrivals on the back of our 2012 ski season campaign, More in every day."
Banners on online publications encourage people to go to newzealand.com where they can find detailed information about the walk, local tour operators, accommodation and surrounding activities. This is designed to make booking easy and encourage visitors to explore all the experiences on offer while they are in New Zealand.
Find out more about Te Araroa - The Long Pathway.
Cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch
The Anglican diocese has given the go-ahead for a cardboard cathedral designed by Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban, to be built on the site of the demolished St John's church in Christchurch's Latimer Square (close to Cathedral Square). The $5.3 million project costs will be met by insurance payments and fundraising (see $10 donations for the Cathedral). The cathedral will be assembled using paper and cardboard tubes on an A-frame of timber beams and structural steel. It is expected that the cathedral will have a lifespan of 20-30 years, take 3 months to construct and be completed by the end of 2012.
The cathedral will be used for worship and concerts and is widely seen as a much-needed tourism attraction in the city. Other tourism attractions in Christchurch for 2012 include:
- Michael Parekowhai Red Zone Installation On Madras Street (July)
- Partial re-opening of Canterbury Museum - Major touring exhibition, Scott's Last Expedition due to open on 23rd November 2012
- Oxford Terrace artworks
- New Zealand IceFest (14th September to 14th October 2012) - Hagley Park
Sustainable Tourism Practices in Your Business
Written by Steph Kendall
New Zealand is promoted throughout the world as a 'clean and green' destination for tourists and its healthy and attractive environs are crucial to the success of New Zealand's tourism industry. As tourism has a direct impact on the environment, all tourism businesses should look at how they can incorporate sustainable business practices into their operations.
Sustainable Tourism – What Does it Mean?
Sustainable tourism is about operators and regions working smarter and more sustainably. This means operators:
- Make their business practice more energy and waste-efficient
- Involve the community in decision-making
- Identify potential risks to the environment from their business and avoid those risks
- Identify opportunities to market a business as sustainable
- Identify beneficial partnerships.
Marketing Your Business as Sustainable
You can promote your sustainable practices to tourists by:
- Publishing environmentally friendly logos on your marketing collateral (print and web)
- Qualifying for Qualmark's Enviro Assured award
- Publishing your business's own environmental policy
- Publishing information about your local environmental concerns (print and web)
- Providing signage around your business to encourage customers and staff to act in accordance with your eco-friendly policies
- Position posters or flyers around your business premises which educate visitors about the environmental issues affecting your region
- Making the New Zealand Eco-Wise Travel Guide accessible to your customers.
Your Environmental Policy
In your eco-policy, you can publish information about the main areas of your business practises with regard to:
- Energy Efficiency - How you reduce the amount of electricity, gas and fuel used by the business
- Waste Management - How you reduce and manage waste (including adherence to the philosophy of 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rethink')
- Water Conservation - How you use water wisely through conservation and management
- Environmental Conservation - How your business contributes to conservation causes or participates in a conservation activity
- Community Support - How your business supports the local community by helping out at community events or supporting community groups and charities.
You can also include your eco-mission statement, details of environmental strategies in your business plan including staff training and visitor education and changes (both small and large) made by your business to become 'greener and cleaner'.
Further reading is located on the Ministry for the Environment website.
Sample Eco Policies
For content inspiration, view these sample policies from: Accommodation Provider, Cruise Operator and SkyDive Operator.
New Zealand Tourism Guide on YouTube
New Zealand Tourism Guide's Audio Visuals collection has been published on YouTube since 2007 and has had almost 80,000 video views. Its collection showcases tourism operators of New Zealand, specialising in accommodation, tours, activities and transport.
As part of NZTG's Multimedia advertising options for operators, you can have an Audio Visual clip created for your company. It is a particularly engaging way to talk directly to your website visitors, verbally communicating your key messages which are reinforced with changing images.
- Communicates your key messages and images
- Professional studio-recorded voiceover
- Excellent selection of background music
- Appealing to your potential customers
- Include it in your own emails
- Add it to your Web site
Your clip can be embedded directly into your own website or upgraded to join our YouTube collection. View New Zealand Tourism Guide on YouTube.
Top Tourism Site of the Month
This month's Top Tourism Site Award goes to Haka Tours
Haka Tours offer fully guided, small group tours designed for independent travellers coming from all over the world. Their recently launched website is a brilliant design targeted to appeal to its core market of younger travellers and incorporates a huge number of features without any feature being overwhelmed or a feeling that the site is crowded. This busy and fun-looking website very much reflects its product and the site includes: customer login, messaging, blog, booking button, personalised tour feature, endorsements and social media. The website is also well-optimised, uses eye-catching graphics and is packed full of textual information as well as engaging photography. Well worth a look.
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