Newsletter : February 2018
Written by Steph Kendall
Welcome to the New Zealand Tourism Guide February 2018 issue. If you have news or comments, please email us news@tourism.net.nz.
In this February newsletter:
- New Zealand's Regions on Show in Indonesia
- New Infographics for Six Key Visitor Markets
- North Island Delights 33.5 million Chef Nic Viewers
- Interest in New Zealand Skyrockets in Japan
- Millennial Travellers Drawn to Authentic Cultural Connection
- Tips for Business: Active Listening and Understanding
- Tourism Site of the Month: Banks Peninsula Experience
New Zealand's Regions on Show in Indonesia
Seven episodes featuring New Zealand locations aired on a popular Indonesian travel show recently to an average audience of 1.6 million. The show targets millennial travellers with a keen interest in outdoor adventures, unique and exciting places, and local cuisine. The advertising value of the Tourism New Zealand project is estimated at over $750,000 and the coverage of the visit shared on social media accounts with more than 2.9 million followers.
Tourism New Zealand worked with the regional tourism organisations in each city to organise the 11-day itinerary. In the episodes the hosts are seen enjoying activities such as skydiving, a Māori cultural performance, getting up close and personal with New Zealand's wildlife, hot air ballooning, punting on the Avon River and enjoying local cuisine.
- Indonesia is still a relatively new market for Tourism New Zealand.
- In the year ending December 2017 17,200 Indonesians visited New Zealand for a holiday, an increase of 28 per cent on the previous year.
- Tourism New Zealand began marketing activity in Indonesia in 2013. It is a valuable market because of Indonesian travellers' tendency to travel during New Zealand's shoulder seasons, peaking during the Lebaran (Ramadan) holiday period
- A growing source market for the high spending corporate incentive sector.
New Infographics for Six Key Visitor Markets
Tourism New Zealand has released updated research that provides high-level information about New Zealand's key international visitor markets: Australia, China, United Kingdom, United States, Germany and Japan.
Data from Statistics New Zealand and the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Enterprise was collated and examined alongside Tourism New Zealand insights to create the user-friendly infographics.
The infographics provide a profile view of Active Considerers for each market - those already considering a holiday in New Zealand (Tourism New Zealand's target audience) - as well as information on the behaviour of past visitors. This information includes market demographics for key consumer segments, visitor expectations, and travel trends, to provide a definitive snapshot of each market.
The information also highlights regional preferences for each key market, as well as opportunities to further promote off-peak travel.
North Island Delights 33.5 million Chef Nic Viewers
The Taupō and Hawke's bay regions have been showcased to more than 33.5 million viewers in a Chef Nic episode launched this month. Chinese superstar chef, Nicholas Tse was in New Zealand in November to film the eighth episode of China's most popular food and travel show.
The 50-minute episode featured Chef Nic and celebrity friend, G.E.M (Gloria Tang) experiencing and tasting regional delights. Activities included cycling through vineyards, barbequing, enjoying hangi and local cultural performances, as well as an Art Deco event in the Hawke's Bay and sailing in Taupō.
Guest star G.E.M became the only Asian artist to feature in the Forbes 30 Under 30 (Music) in 2016. She has a substantial social media following round 24 million on Chinese social media platform, Weibo.
The episode has an estimated advertising value of more than NZ$20 million. Tourism New Zealand says the impact and influence of New Zealand featuring on a show such as Chef Nic is significant for the tourism industry.
- China is a hugely valuable visitor market for New Zealand, with Chinese visitors contributing around $1.4 billion to the New Zealand economy each year.
- For the year ending December 2017, New Zealand welcomed 314,048 Chinese holiday arrivals. This was an increase of 1.0 percent on the previous year.
- The i-SITE visitor network recently released a new Chinese language touring map, designed to support the safety of self-drive tourists in New Zealand. It can be accessed at www.tourismnewzealand.com/isite
Interest in New Zealand Skyrockets in Japan
Japanese travel agents have become increasingly interested in selling New Zealand as air connectivity between the two countries continues to improve.
The number of Japanese travel agents engaged in Tourism New Zealand's 100% Pure New Zealand Specialist Programme has more than tripled since improvements were made to the programme in June 2017. There are now 910 100% Pure New Zealand Specialists in Japan.
Tourism New Zealand has been heavily promoting the 100% Pure New Zealand programme through:
- Regular agent training sessions and industry seminars in seven different Japanese cities.
- Introducing the 100% Pure programme to over 500 agents to coincide with the launch of Air New Zealand's Haneda to Auckland service.
- Working closely with the Japan Outbound Tourism Council (JOTC)-a subsidiary organisation of the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA)-which promotes outbound travel from Japan.
- Educating travel agents about New Zealand as a destination as agents are the main booking source for travellers in Japan.
- Improving training by inclusion of a Gold, Silver and Bronze tier structure for international travel sellers, with different criteria, incentives and benefits for each tier. (One incentive is the opportunity to be selected to travel to New Zealand on a familiarisation trip).
Millennial Travellers Drawn to Authentic Cultural Connection
A joint venture between Tourism New Zealand and leading youth travel company Contiki will reach millions of 18 to 35-year olds around the world who are thinking of visiting New Zealand. New Zealand will be promoted as a place with unique and authentic cultural connections.
The origins, meaning and importance of the haka are powerfully told in the partnership's main piece of content - a moving video showcasing the haka but also the warm manaakitanga (welcome and hospitality) New Zealand is known for. The video launched on 19 January and racked up over 194k views along with an impressive 2,000 shares within three days.
The campaign also includes a version of the haka video being pushed out via UNILAD, a hugely popular social media news page. The video has reached over two million views after just four days.
- Youth travellers account for over 193k visitors to New Zealand a year, tending to stay longer and spend more than the average visitor.
- The campaign also includes five other pieces of supporting video that showcases a range of New Zealand locations and experiences and four significant blog articles on Contiki's site.
- Contiki's frontline travel agents will also promote the campaign and travel to New Zealand over the coming months.
Tips for Business: Active Listening and Understanding
This is the third article in a series of tips for business focussing on how to give great customer service to international visitors. This month we focus on how active listening - listening to what is really said - can go a long way in overcoming differences between languages and cultures.
Listening (not the appearance of listening) is an essential part of understanding and avoiding miscommunication. Listening attentively can help communications between people who are not fluent in a common language. By understanding your customers correctly, you can improve their experience with you, improve your customer service and your product.
10 Top tips to help you listen more effectively
- Be an active listener, focus your attention firmly on the person speaking and listen carefully.
- Don't assume you know what the other person is going to say.
- Listen out for any 'key' words that may give you a clue as to what the other person means.
- Ask questions - clearly and slowly - to help you understand using why, what, where, when and how - to try and find out what the situation is.
- Check to make sure the other person has understood by asking open questions (who, what, where and how) rather than questions that just need a 'yes' or 'no' answer. Try not to simply ask, "do you understand?" Ask someone how they will do something, what time they will meet, etc?
- Watch body language and other signs such as facial expressions. A smile often means someone has understood and a frown can mean they are confused.
- Make sure you understand what has been said to you and clarify this by repeating back comments that have been made.
- If you are not sure that you have understood each other correctly, ask more questions to make sure you understand.
- Don't be afraid to ask the other person to repeat things.
- Be patient.
Top Tourism Site of the Month
This month's Top Tourism Site Award goes to Banks Peninsula Experience.
The information on this website is very clearly, simply and attractively presented. The main menu bar says a lot about the services provided by Banks Peninsula Experience without the page viewer even having to scroll further down the page.
They offer guided tours, motorcycle hire and riding lessons to individuals and groups. Scroll further and details evolve such as tour length, equipment provision, meeting cruise ships, offering overnight accommodation for cars and campervans and so forth.
The photography showcases the scenery of the Banks Peninsula through an almost misty, nostalgic lens, which contrasts effectively with the sleek, unmistakable modernity of chrome and metal machines, jackets and helmets. Big, beautiful and bold in design - which may just reflect the experience perfectly.
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
- June 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: Ground Floor, 518 Colombo Street, Christchurch