Newsletter : November 2002

NZTO Comment

by Garry Bond, General Manager, New Zealand Tourism Guide

New Zealand has done very well lately and has been labeled as one of the hottest destinations in the world. This sort of media coverage can't be bought and independent reviews such as these are very important to our industry.

New Zealand offers value for money, a diverse range of activities, and natural beauty. All these contribute to our top billing but without people power we would lose our spot. Every time you come in contact with a tourist, you make an impression. This impression is derived from quality service and personal contact. Keeping these standards high isn't easy but is well worth while.

On the whole I believe our level of service is high but I must say that on occasion, I wonder why some people are in this industry. There seems to be a few who look it as a quick buck, or want the lifestyle so they can play golf whenever they want. There are also staff who probably wish they were somewhere else as well.

Tourism is basically hospitality and to keep the standards up it pays to review customer service on a regular basis. Look to attend courses or reward excellence in this area. Each and every person in the tourism sector in this country has a part to play and our standards must be keep very high to enable continued favourable publicity.

New Zealand Tourism Guide Gains Top 10 Ranking

New Zealand Tourism Guide continues to develop its Web site and its market. Hitwise is an independent organisation monitoring NZ traffic to NZ Web sites and ranks the Top 10 Web sites according to user visits, across 150+ categories.

New Zealand Tourism Guide was awarded a Top 10 Award in the Destinations and Accommodation section. Considering our site attracts about 30% NZ traffic (70% International traffic), this award reinforces our standing at the top of the tourism Internet market.

Search Engine Entry Pages

Once a Web site has been online for a while and is generating some good traffic from search engines, then the next step is to continue broadening out keyword coverage. This can be achieved by creating additional content or special "entry pages".

Entry pages are a powerful weapon in a Web site's online arsenal. New phrases are identified by researching appropriate keywords that your target audience are searching with.

Identifying the Right Keywords

Continuing on with the entry page theme, here's some more information about identifying the right keywords to help promote your Web site or entry page.

There are several free Web tools to help in this area:

• Wordtracker

A fairly new keyword "suggestion tool" is one from a company called S.L.I. Systems. This company develops smart search technologies for major international corporates. They offer a neat new Web tool that will help you identify what keywords your target audience is using.

This tool has a terrific twist because it's actually smart enough to find related keywords, not just phrases that include the keyword you type in. For example, if you type in "Queenstown" it also gives you related keywords such as "Arrowtown", "Wanaka" and "Central Otago".

Check out this free keyword suggestion tool:

• SLI Systems

For more general information read this article.

Another New Tourism Web Site Launched

New Zealand Tourism Guide has been busy and has just launched another brand new Web site - this time dealing specifically with New Zealand Attractions. This site does not detract from the main tourism Web site www.tourism.net.nz which continues to build traffic (over 20,000 visitors last week) but adds to the overall Internet marketing strategy.

Visit www.nzto.com and have a good look around. Listing your attractions business on this site costs $225 + GST for a 12 month period.

Here's an update on all the sites we have recently launched:

• New Zealand Accommodation
• New Zealand Attractions
• New Zealand Transport

This is one of the best times of the year to promote your business and the summer season is coming around fast. This is a limited offer and expires November 30th 2002. Call 0800 14 65 48 or email for more information.

Note: If you are a tours business we haven't forgotten you - a new Web site dedicated to tours will be launched soon.

Tourism News in Brief

Here is some of the latest New Zealand tourism news.

Prime Minister Boosts New Zealand's Tourism Profile - A travel programme featuring Prime Minister Helen Clark will reach an audience of more than 70 million homes in the United States and boost New Zealand's profile in its second largest visitor market - North America.

i-SITE Brand in Action - The first signage upgrades to i-SITE have now been completed in all major New Zealand cities, with over 20 Visitor Information Centres now featuring the i-SITE brand.

No Ordinary Mug - It's a great sport and its worth a lot of cash, but for tourism getting the most out of the international exposure is still where the hard work is going on.

New Zealand is Hottest Destination! - International media have picked New Zealand as one of the hottest destinations in the world.