Newsletter : August 2012
Written by Steph Kendall
Welcome to the New Zealand Tourism Guide www.tourism.net.nz August 2012 issue. If you have news or comments, please email us news@tourism.net.nz.
In this August newsletter:
Countdown to 100% Middle Earth
With just three months to go until the world premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in Wellington, Tourism New Zealand has been working to ensure New Zealand benefits from the increase in international attention.
A creative theme for all activity, Fantasy is Reality has been confirmed to ensure there is a strong connection between the films and New Zealand. Key international media and opinion leader targets have been identified. Advertising schedules are locked in. Broadcast footage, captured.
"One of our most exciting milestones will be reached in late August when the new 100% Pure New Zealand campaign will get its first public airing, drawing together the themes '100% Pure' and '100% Middle Earth'," says Chief Executive Kevin Bowler.
Diary Dates
- August - Tourism New Zealand launches new 100% Middle-earth, 100% Pure New Zealand advertisement
- 28th November - World premier in Wellington, New Zealand of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
- 13th December - World-wide release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Japanese Market Bouncing Back
The return of the Japan summer charter series signifies confidence returning to the Japanese market following a period of post-earthquake decline. Air New Zealand last week confirmed a summer season charter programme of 14 flights to New Zealand over the December 2012 - March 2013 season utilising the 230-seat Boeing 767-300. This charter programme doubles the size of last year's programme representing an additional 3,200 available seats to New Zealand over the Japan peak season.
Air New Zealand also confirmed that 6 of the charter flights will operate directly to the South Island increasing arrivals direct into Christchurch. Typical itineraries for visitors flying into New Zealand on the charter services include onward travel to popular tourist destinations including Auckland, Rotorua, Canterbury Mt Cook, Queenstown and Fiordland.
Get into the Romance Business
Written by Steph Kendall
As one of its KPIs, Tourism New Zealand's 3 Year Marketing Strategy (2010-2013) aimed to promote the association of New Zealand with specific interests such as honeymoons. During this timeframe, 78% of Indian visitors (in the 25-29 year old age group) arrived in New Zealand in 2011 for their honeymoon. Last month over 54,000 searches online focused on 'honeymoons in new zealand' which included 10,000 enquiries searching specifically for honeymoon packages, destinations and resorts.
Romance has always been good for business and if you have yet to promote your business through wedding, honeymoons or romantic getaway packages, there has never been a better time to start. If you think that putting together a honeymoon package is easier for accommodation providers, then you are probably right. Certainly they can promote their offer through a wider array of relevant keywords and website copy.
Honeymoon Packages
However, almost every tourism provider can put together some sort of in-house honeymoon package with a little creative thinking. Offering any of the following could be a good starting point:
- Special rates and inclusions (e.g. discounted prices, flowers and champagne on arrival or at any time during the experience, options for extras – massages, extra night's accommodation)
- Preferential treatment (e.g. special welcome, personal tour guide, one-on-two tuition, luxury vehicles for transfers, pick-ups and tour travel)
- Gourmet dining and fine wines (champagne breakfasts, picnic hampers, sunset cocktails)
- Souvenir photographs (e.g. take the couple's picture so they're both in it, often a rarity on couples' holidays, make a nice 'fuss' of them – but be aware of cultural sensitivities)
To make the couple feel extra special, the most senior person in the business should provide a welcome (preferably a few words in their own language), clearly explain what is available and ensure their experience is enjoyable, memorable and includes opportunity for private, romantic moments (e.g. picnics, sunsets, star-gazing, sharing champagne).
If your honeymoon package is looking a little thin on the ground, look at other local tourism providers to see what you could offer together.
Suggestions For Getting Started
- Research the search market for keyword phrases you can use, view websites for inspiration and work out where your honeymoon business may come from (New Zealand, Australia, India, Japan, Korea, etc).
- Read Tourism Industry Association briefs on how to market your business to large markets such as China and India. These short briefs provide tips on cultural awareness, service expectations, preferred dining, popular activities and cultural attitudes towards 'romance'.
- Work out what you can offer as an in-house honeymoon package.
- Collaborate with other tourism providers to create 'honeymoon packages' tailored to a specific market.
- Create some pages on your website marketing your business towards honeymooners and/or romantic getaway seekers.
- Ensure your new pages are fully optimised with keywords relevant to 'honeymoons' + new zealand / region / city.
- Use New Zealand Tourism's free image library for quality, 'romantic' photographs – visit http://images.newzealand.com/index.cfm.
- Promote your honeymoon offer through your website home page, Facebook presence, newsletters, search engine advertising and other mediums.
- Get listed in New Zealand Tourism Guide's highly ranked pages on Honeymoon and Wedding Accommodation (https://www.tourism.net.nz/event-planning/weddings/honeymoon-and-wedding-accommodation/).
Proofreading Memo
Written by Steph Kendall
To all NZTG Clients
Try to proofread all your marketing material before it's published online or in print. The level of care and attention you give to what you say reflects on your whole business. Take a few minutes to read aloud your web pages, Facebook posts, event listings, newsletters, tweets or printed material (at final proof stage). Do not rely on spell checkers to find your mistakes – they can and do miss them.
Look out for:
- Incorrect use of apostrophes (it's, its, menus, menu's)
- Words spelt incorrectly (accomodation, itinirery, activites)
- Duplicates (from from, be be, are are)
- Broken or missing links
- Inconsistent use of '&' and 'and'
- Spacing between characters
- Incorrect use of capital letters
- Widows and orphans
- Spelling mistakes in auto-responders and dynamic content
- Non-deliberate use of both NZ and US English (colour/color, traveller/traveler)
New Zealand Tourism Guide - Google Ranking Update
New Zealand Tourism Guide (tourism.net.nz) continues to be one of the best places for your business to be found. The table below shows the number of Unique Browsers in a 20 day period in the Nielsen Netrating Travel section.
With 200,000 web pages indexed by Google alone (up from 113,000 page in August 2011), our tourism site attracts travellers (50% local and 50% international) looking for something specific as well as those in the planning stage.
From 1st to 20th August 2012, over 8,500 different terms were searched for in Google by travellers and resulted in our site being on page one of Google results in 7,000 of those searches. We even occupied the first 3 positions in Google results over 3,300 times.
Note: Some individual searches like 'New Zealand Tourism' were searched for over 10,000 times during this period.
This is good news for businesses who list with us and indicates we are a preferred site for travellers. Call New Zealand Tourism Guide on 0800 14 65 51 or email us for more information.
Top Tourism Site of the Month
This month's Top Tourism Site Award goes to Te Nikau Forest Retreat
www.tenikauforestretreat.co.nz
It must be the romance in the air which helped Te Nikau Forest Retreat's website win this month's Top Tourism Site Award. This beautiful property is excellently presented through quality photography, enticingly written text and a website that zings with colour. The personal chef, Kapiti hamper, open fire and spa could be highlighted to a greater degree, especially to the honeymoon market via a 'honeymoon page'. Shorter and more clearly-defined headings may also help to break up the page text for web scanners and skimmers.
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