Glaciers in New Zealand
Maori children
Northland, New Zealand
Queen Charlotte Sound
Routeburn Track
Boating in Taupo
Tongariro, New Zealand
Wellington, New Zealand

Newsletter : April 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're doomed. That's what you are likely to believe if you were a visiting alien and had just read a newspaper or sat in front of a TV around 6pm. How much of it is cold hard facts and how much of it is media hype (or over-coverage)? Are you affected in any way? And if so, is this from a personal point of view e.g. mortgage costs, grocery prices etc or from a business point of view e.g. poor season with few forward bookings?

Let's just breathe for a moment and consider a few things:

  • The political arena is hotting up and it's in the best interests of any party not in Government to try and land a few punches by pointing out any crack they can find in the economy.
  • While our traditional developed tourism markets slowed in terms of numbers visiting this country (USA, UK), increased visitor numbers from developing countries (China, Brazil, South Africa) offset this to the tune of 2.2% in February 2008.
  • Increased marketing for domestic tourism will give our market a good shot in the arm.
  • March had a record 250,000 visitors to New Zealand, which is an increase of 5% over the same period last year.

The above points indicate that it's not all doom and gloom but I'll concede that some businesses may well be experiencing a slowdown. This is perhaps more to do with their typical target market or a combination of several factors. Recently I've read a couple of articles about what can occur when you believe you are in this situation and one of the first things to come to mind is to cut the marketing budget. This may save a few bucks but your well informed competitors often become more active and see the empty market space as a great opportunity. After all, their advertising is going to stand out and not only will they gain current sales but will be marketing themselves when a perceived upswing occurs.

Even though I am somewhat biased towards the internet, the huge advantage of this medium is that you are able to market yourself effectively worldwide and nationally. As an example, if we consider marketing your business on our site for a 12 month period.

  1. You reach domestic travellers (who plan short term and travel within a few days to a month or so out)
  2. You reach Australian and Island travellers (who plan and travel within a few weeks to three odd months out)
  3. You reach international travellers (who plan now for travel up to 12 months out)

Basically if you aren't seen now, you will miss potential visitors from all of these groups. Think about it.

Final thought. While the growth in tourism has slowed since early to mid 2000, New Zealand is still a great destination for travellers. We have the Rugby World Cup in a few short years and Tourism New Zealand is continuing to think of innovative ways to promote the country.

April Tourism Highlights

Here's a few highlights from Tourism New Zealand in April.

  • New Zealand is the dream destination for British outdoors enthusiasts, according to recent readers' polls in two top UK walking publications. The readers of Walk magazine have voted New Zealand "Best Walking Place Overseas", ahead of France and Austria, in the 2008 Walk Readers' Awards. Walk is the UK's largest circulated walking magazine and reaches 140,000 active walkers and outdoors enthusiasts.
  • Tourism New Zealand plans to capture the attention of Chinese travellers in its first ever advertising campaign in Shanghai. Tourism New Zealand's global marketing campaign '100% Pure New Zealand' launched on 21 April with a focus on raising awareness of New Zealand as a holiday destination. China has just become New Zealand's fourth largest tourism market surpassing Japan in February this year. Over 122,000 Chinese visited New Zealand in 2007.
  • Tourism New Zealand is making some changes to how it promotes New Zealand in the United Arab Emirates, which currently produces close to 2,000 holiday visitors a year. From July 1, 2008 Tourism New Zealand's London office will take over trade development responsibility for the United Arab Emirates.

Directory Search Feature Spots – HIGH PROFILE

With about one third of the visitors to the New Zealand Tourism Online www.tourism.net.nz Web site using the new directory search function, now is a great time to grab a feature spot that will profile your business at the top of the page within your region and category i.e. Nelson Accommodation or Hawke's Bay Tours etc.

Visitors simply select a region, a category and a keyword such as 'hotel' if they wish to narrow the results.

The search function has a prime position on our home page and side menus and complements the normal navigation through a region or via one of the main category sections such as accommodation, attractions, tours etc.

SEARCH SPOTS – LIMITED OPPORTUNITY – BE QUICK

While the search results return appropriate listings in a randomised order, there are a limited number of search spots available to enable you to be seen regularly in a prominent position at the top of the results page within your region and category.

There are only 10 spots for an entire region and category combination e.g. Queenstown Accommodation, with two listings displayed at any one time (covers apartments, motels, B&B, hotels, backpackers etc). These are rotated every 5 minutes so you continually get to catch a new batch of visitors using the search function. If a keyword is used, your listing will still appear. This is great for cross marketing your business e.g. someone searches for 'hotel' after selecting Queenstown and accommodation and your apartment listing will occupy one of the 10 spots.

Several sections have already sold out e.g. Auckland Accommodation, Rotorua Accommodation so contact us now to check availability.

SEARCH SPOT OFFER > SPECIAL INTRO DEAL

There is very targeted positioning for businesses with a maximum of only 10 spots available to cover all categories in your region. It's first in, first served basis.

Type: Directory Search Spot

Position: https://www.tourism.net.nz/search/ (simply select your region and category to see where you'd be placed)

Price: $295 + GST for a 3 month period. Note: you can buy 2 or more spots for increased intensive coverage or extend for longer marketing periods of 6, 9 or 12 months (discounts available).

Hot Bonus: Special intro deal with 1 month extra online for free if buying a 3, 6, 9 or 12 month period.

What do the SEARCH SPOTS look like?

Here's what the spots look like. We may have listings already sold occupying the spot or a placeholder for travel insurance or NZ products. The placeholders will be removed once the spots have been sold.

Clear Ridge Apartments search feature

BUY or CHECK AVAILABILITY SPOT

Simply email us directly to order or to check the availability of a spot (ask for your region and category so we can check availability), contact your tourism consultant or call us on 0800-14-65-49.

PS: Once you order, we'll get it up and running with no extra work required from you.

Choosing A Content Management System (CMS) Web Site

Written by: Steph Kendall, Avatar Web Promotions

You're probably familiar with the concept of content management system (CMS) style Web site design. This type of Web site has increased in popularity over the last few years, mainly because:

  • It can be quick and easy to update text and images
  • No knowledge of programming code is required
  • Multiple users can update pages
  • The look of the Web site can be changed via a re-designed CSS (style sheet).

A major concern about many of the CMS sites being used by New Zealand businesses for Web marketers is that although the designs of the sites look great, the sites themselves do not always rank well on search engines. This was often because the structure or build behind the CMS was not designed to be search engine friendly in the first place. For example, perhaps the CMS did not allow the administrator or developer the ability to optimise their Web sites thoroughly via features such as:

  • Non-dynamic looking URLs (e.g. new-zealand-web-design.html as opposed to product.php?categoryid=1&productid=10)
  • Unique Meta data (especially titles and descriptions) for each section, category and content item.

One of the CMS style Web development softwares available that combats these types of problems is Joomla!. Joomla! is written with the PHP programming language and uses the MYSQL database by default. The beauty of Joomla! is that it is constantly being developed by programmers all over the world, who create 'plug-in' components. These components can be customised as required by skilful Web developers and programmers.

Joomla! so far seems to be standing up extremely well to the requirements of programmers, Web site owners and viewers. Some of the features that make it particularly noteworthy amongst its CMS peers include:

  • OpenSEF – Search engine friendly component
  • Interactive components such as forums, guest books, shout boxes and polls
  • Variety of up-to-date content-driven components such as blogs, clocks, eCards, FAQ, quizzes, weather and RSS feeds
  • Capabilities for galleries, podcasting and streaming media
  • E-commerce compatibility including auctions, catalogues and shopping carts
  • Easy to update advertising space (banners and classifieds)
  • Comprehensive administrative back end with a range of access levels provided for different users.

If you think a CMS style Web site best meets your requirements, talk to a variety of Web designers and developers. Ask them what the costs involved are (for design, development, hosting and maintenance etc) and why this is the best solution for you. They should be able to show you samples of their CMS development work and walk you through many of the most common features used by Web site owners.

Are you a Tourism Industry Association of New Zealand Member?

Tourism Industry Association of New Zealand

Being an individual tourism operator is not without its challenges. Changes in government legislation, industry reforms and everyday business costs all create obstacles for even the most successful of operators. That's why being a Member of the Tourism Industry Association is absolutely ideal for your business. As an independent, private sector body with around 2000 members, TIANZ speak with one voice for the interests of our entire industry.

Member benefits include:

  • Advocacy – TIANZ aim to ensure that tourism is firmly at the top of the agenda when government decisions are made. The size and ability of the organisation to be heard also helps to ensure that industry-specific decisions are made with consultation and transparency.
  • Tourism-focused business seminars providing insights into important business issues such as sustainability, managing risk and attracting and retaining staff.
  • Special Member rates to key industry events such as TRENZ and our annual Tourism Industry Conference.
  • TIANZ exclusive business offers from key businesses throughout New Zealand provide real cost savings on everyday business expenses including tel-communications, office supplies, fuel and banking. These can easily cover the cost of the annual membership fee.

Contact TIANZ on (04) 499-0104 to find out more about why being a member of Tourism Industry Association will be absolutely ideal for your business.

JOIN OR RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP BEFORE 30 MAY AND YOU'LL RECEIVE EVEN MORE EXCLUSIVE OFFERS.

We welcome any feedback — send your comments to: news@tourism.net.nz

Regards,

The Team
Ph 0800 14 65 49
www.tourism.net.nz
New Zealand Tourism Online Limited
Head Office: 179 Tuam Street, Christchurch

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