Newsletter : November 2012
Written by Steph Kendall
Welcome to the New Zealand Tourism Guide www.tourism.net.nz November 2012 issue. If you have news or comments, please email us news@tourism.net.nz.
In this November newsletter:
Target Australia
During October and November, two major marketing iniatives are launching to target the Australian tourism market: a 'New Zealand travelator' in Sydney airport and a campaign marketing New Zealand as the food and wine destination for Australian foodies.
Travelator
Launched in partnership with Qantas, a 27-metre long travelator will be located in Sydney's Domestic Airport for the next six weeks. As travellers walk onto the travelator and through the 'fuselage' they are taken on a journey of the North Island. Images of the North Island's 'hidden gems' including Waitomo Caves, Waiheke Island, Waipoua Forest and Tongariro Crossing are featured on the inside of the aircraft windows accompanied by relaxing music featuring the sounds of nature.
View the travelator.
Experience NZ Wine and Food First Hand
Launching in early November, the message targetting Australian travellers in Tourism New Zealand's campaign is 'Come and experience world class New Zealand food and wine first hand'. The campaign targets young Australian professionals and travellers over 50 and profiles a range of food and wine experiences that can be found in Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa, Marlborough and Wellington.
Past research has shown that a significant number of 'New Zealand active considerers' highly rate food and wine as an incentive to travel. Advertising for the campaign will feature in Good Food, a popular insert magazine in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Read more about other marketing activity in Australia.
New Zealand's Greens to Attract Chinese Golfers
Figures released by Tourism New Zealand showed that in the year ended September 2012, visitor arrivals from China became the third largest source of visitors to New Zealand (behind Australia and the UK). It is hoped in the future that Chinese golfers will add to growing visitor numbers with a new drive to lure them to New Zealand's fairways.
Destination New Zealand was profiled to more than 350,000 golf enthusiasts in a 104-page feature in China's Golf Digest as a direct result of Tourism New Zealand's International Media Programme.
Four media representatives from the publication visited New Zealand earlier this year and experienced a ten-day trip around the country visiting Northland, Auckland, Hawke's Bay, Canterbury and Queenstown to explore the best of New Zealand golf.
The September edition of Golf Digest focussed entirely on New Zealand and included a wide range of images as well as interviews with New Zealand golfers Michael Campbell and Sir Bob Charles. The article profiles a range of top golf courses including Cape Kidnapper, Kauri Cliffs, Clearwater and Jack's Point as well as a range of premium accommodation, restaurants and activities.
Read more about marketing activity in China.
Happy Staff Are Good for Business
Written by Steph Kendall
At the height of a busy tourism season when it's all systems go for weeks on end, you and your staff may start to wilt around the edges. If you notice that your staff are feeling tired or lacking in motivation to go the 'extra mile', try to introduce some incentives into your business model to show your appreciation of their hard work and efforts. A few low-cost incentives and simple ways of saying 'thank you' can go a very long way to restore employees' energy levels and interest in their work.
Individual Thank-Yous
Have a think about what type of thank you might work in your business. Take some time to devise incentives appropriate to your staff's interests and well-being and let other staff know what people are getting thanked for. Ensure that everyone's efforts are recognised if that's appropriate. Some relatively inexpensive suggestions follow:
- A special mention and thanks to an individual in the weekly staff meeting.
- A personal note of thanks from you (the business owner) or your manager for a job well done, accompanied with a box of chocolates or bottle of wine. (Keep a copy for their file so you can refer back to it during the employee's next performance review.)
- A bunch of flowers/ bottle of wine/ gourmet hamper to say thanks for working longer hours or dealing with difficult situations.
- Beauty or spa treatment presented on payday as an extra bonus.
- A gift card for the local coffee shop, favourite pizza voucher or free beer token.
- Extra time off with pay – a few hours or even a full day if you can spare them.
Boosting Team Morale
If the adrenalin of the busy time is keeping everyone buzzing, save some incentives for quieter periods. When work feels 'flat', employees may feel a little flat too. Now is the time for some group incentives and team bonding exercises that may require time away from the 'day to day' business. Use your own facilities wherever possible, or team up with a partner business to share costs. Consider some of the following:
- Social get-together – picnic, barbecue or movie night. It's best to steer away from expensive trips to the local bar and much more social if you can include families in your plans.
- End of season meal – arrange for a meal with pre-planned menus and drinks orders, so everyone can have an enjoyable evening together and be thanked by you for a great season's work.
- Team bonding activity – whitewater rafting, high wire climbs, surfing lessons – something that gets your staff working and more importantly, laughing together.
- Group training – combine incentives with training that's informative, useful and fun to do (customer service, culinary courses, health and safety, etc).
Remember happy staff can perform their jobs more professionally, work better as a team, are open to new ideas and stay in their jobs for longer - all of which are good for business.
10 Tips to Improve Business
Written by Steph Kendall
- Use clear simple language in your sales material to tell people about what you sell - not just a hotel or backpackers for example, but an experience, a holiday, a break from the everyday.
- Provide details about your business - for example, you can explain your menus by adding information about who created them and where the ingredients came from. It adds interest and makes you different from the business next door.
- Double check your website - it's one of your most important sales tools. Does it include everything about your business? Location, prices, what's included, booking facility, contact details, testimonials, details about your offer/s, etc.
- Publish easy-to-use email addresses (with links that open a blank email when published online) and use different emails for different functions (e.g. accounts@, enquiries@, admin@, etc)
- Make sure you have registered your details with "Google Places" as it can help your website get seen in local searches.
- Publish your phone number in a prominent location on printed and digital marketing brochures. Your phone number should be easy to find - a freephone number is ideal.
- Collect email addresses from all enquirers, walk-ins, customers and contacts and make sure you also get permission to send out emails (relevant to your business).
- Publish a photo calender of your business so people can see what they might experience in each month of the year, in different seasons and in different weather conditions.
- First impressions count - answering the phone, greeting people at reception, answering emails, your website home page. Ensure that your team is well briefed on how to respond to customers and are well-presented.
- Use incentives to get people to sign up for your newsletters and share their email details with you - e.g. offer the chance to win a prize, discount vouchers or similar.
Top Tourism Site of the Month
This month's Top Tourism Site Award goes to Almyra Bed and Breakfast, Tasman.
www.luxurynelsonaccommodation.co.nz
The design and development of this website has been very well thought out as it includes: a mobile site for smartphone users, search engine optimisation elements (keyword rich domain name, menu buttons, page names, optimised Meta data and page content), live booking system and peer reviews (TripAdvisor) on the home page. The quality of the main banner photograph is not quite as strong as the other photographs in the 'accommodation gallery' (note the use of a keyword here) and the booking CTA could be more prominently located above the fold of the page, but lots of effective elements are being utilised.
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