Newsletter : October 2012
Written by Steph Kendall
Welcome to the New Zealand Tourism Guide www.tourism.net.nz October 2012 issue. If you have news or comments, please email us news@tourism.net.nz.
In this October newsletter:
New Zealand Halal Guide for Muslim Tourists
Tourism New Zealand and Christchurch International Airport have launched a culinary tourism guide to New Zealand, which focuses on meeting the needs of Halal travellers. This new guide to halal restaurants and cafés in New Zealand is being sent offshore in an attempt to attract a bigger slice of the Muslim tourism market. (Halal is meat which is prepared as prescribed by Muslim law – e.g. meat from livestock that is slaughtered by a sharp knife from the neck with the name of Allah mentioned.)
As well as general tourist information, the New Zealand Halal Guide includes a list of halal-classified restaurants and cafés, from halal-certified through to those which offer vegetarian dishes or vegan cuisine.
- The New Zealand Halal Guide – Introduction
- Halal Culinary Guide - North Island
- Halal Culinary Guide - South Island
The Growing Market
Muslim tourists' expenditure is estimated to rise to more than 13 per cent of global tourism expenditure by 2020. Tourism NZ has identified Indonesia and Malaysia as two key growth markets and there are also Muslim tourism market opportunities for New Zealand in India and Singapore.
Muslim tourist numbers into New Zealand were increasing. Figures from last month showed the number of Indonesian travellers was 141 percent higher than August 2011.
Distribution
The New Zealand Halal Guide will be distributed internationally to the travel trade and their customers, New Zealand Embassies and other key offshore partners.
It will also be distributed to travel agents and consumers at key offshore events attended by Tourism New Zealand. An online version will be posted on Tourism New Zealand's consumer and trade websites.
Meeting the Needs of the Halal Market
Tourism New Zealand is currently running a series of workshops for the tourism industry to provide information and advice on how to meet the needs and expectations of the halal market. You may want to consider including Halal meals on your menus or arranging for Muslim guests to visit one of the nine mosques in New Zealand and/or a Halal restaurant.
Where Gods Climb Mountains...
Tourism New Zealand and Qantas are running a joint venture campaign in Germany aimed at boosting German visitor arrivals into New Zealand during the upcoming summer season.
The activity kicked off in Germany in early September with an online advertising campaign. It uses inspirational imagery and taglines in-line with the 100% Pure New Zealand campaign that demonstrates what a holiday to New Zealand during the summer season could be like.
Tourism New Zealand said the joint venture with Qantas allows Tourism New Zealand to promote a more attractive proposition to the market. Qantas is promoting a return economy class fare of EUR€1208 for travel from 1st February to 31st March 2013. A second trade partner, Boomerang Reisen, has also been brought on board to offer package holidays that incorporate the Qantas flights.
The campaign includes online banners which direct traffic to newzealand.com and qantas.com.au.
View more about TNZ's marketing activity for the German market.
Create Quality Content for Your Website
Written by Steph Kendall
If you are looking for a relatively quick, inexpensive way to promote your business to search engine users, then put your fingers to the keyboard and start creating some new content for your website. Better still, create content that helps make your business sound more appealing to potential customers, not just realms of meaningless 'blah blah blah' published for the sake of it.
Why Text is Important
Google's search engine spiders – the programs that find and index websites – use text on web pages to help them identify what these pages are about. Once Google has identified a page topic, the page data is stored in its index. Specific indexes are retrieved and served up to people as they enter certain search terms.
Without textual information on a page, it is harder for Google and other search engines to identify what each web page is about. Hence websites that publish a much higher proportion of images and animation than text can do badly when it comes to being seen by search engines and their users.
Creating well-written and meaningful pages for your website that include a clearly-defined purpose or topic, corresponding Meta Data, titles and links can help your business get found and viewed by more search engines users.
Quality Over Quantity
It may be tempting to create endless pages of text simply to gain traction on search engines, but avoid the temptation. Google is wise to 'content spamming' and pages such as these may damage the overall reputation and ranking of your entire website. Always aim for quality rather than quantity when you are writing new web pages.
- Write about what you know (i.e. aspects of your business) – don't be afraid to use your own tone of voice or way of expressing things. Your passion for a subject can make for some compelling reading material.
- If you are stuck for ideas, ask your staff for their input (or write about your staff).
- Write about details of your business that may be of interest – e.g. where you source your menu ingredients or who painted the original artworks in the foyer.
- Write about your local area to provide your pages and website with content that is useful to travellers and tourists.
- Read all your pages aloud before you publish them to check the sense of what you have written.
- Optimise your text to include relevant keyword searches where it is sensible to do so.
- Proofread the text before you publish it, so each page creates or helps to add to a professional online profile.
10 Tips to Improve Business
Written by Steph Kendall
- Make it very simple and quick for customers to make a website or phone booking. Review your online booking engine for ease of use and ensure that your staff have the time to talk politely to customers on the phone.
- Promote your business through its unique selling point (USP) and make it sound enticing.
- Collect email addresses from your customers and create an email database that you regularly update and send information too.
- Always use professional printed marketing material and front of house signage – handwritten and misspelt signs mostly look sloppy.
- Chalkboard signage can look great as part of a 'funky image' as long as the boards are cleaned first then printed neatly (best used for menus).
- Use email newsletters to promote your business and send new offers to past customers (much cheaper than trying to secure new patronage).
- Make sure the information published on your website and in your brochures is current. Letting out-of-date information circulate shows a lack of care and professionalism.
- Share marketing opportunities such as mail-outs with another company and double the size of your potential market (e.g. include a brochure or postcard with each other's mailing).
- Add personality to your website – showcase your staff, include their biographies, pictures, names, recommendations and favourite local activities that your guests/visitors can enjoy too.
- Include professional high-quality photography on your website and in your marketing material – these pictures are your shop window, so you need to make them as attractive and compelling as possible.
Top Tourism Site of the Month
This month's Top Tourism Site Award goes to Thunder Jet Queenstown.
www.thunderjetqueenstown.co.nz
The look of this website is very attractive as it uses a striking design, professional-looking photography and stylish graphics. The website includes prominent links to social media (Facebook, YouTube) and appealing features such as: viewing photos, freephone booking number, easy booking facility and news feed. I particularly like the button name 'We Suggest' for a page which (when finished) introduces other activities in the area for Thunder Jet clients to enjoy. A refreshing change from reading just 'Activities' in the menu and it adds a little extra personality to the website.
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