Newsletter : November 2014
Written by Steph Kendall
Welcome to the New Zealand Tourism Guide www.tourism.net.nz November 2014 issue. If you have news or comments, please email us news@tourism.net.nz.
In this November newsletter:
The Cricket World Cup Effect on Tourism Numbers
There is only a few months to go before New Zealand can expect a massive 33 per cent growth in Indian travellers. Tourism New Zealand predicts that we can expect an influx of visitors for the World Cup Cricket, the nation is co-hosting with Australia in February and March.
"Last year we did about 30,000 visitors. It is growing quite quickly. We expect about 40,000 visitors when our fiscal year ends in June," Tourism New Zealand general manager Asia David Craig said.
On the profile of Indians visiting New Zealand, Craig said the younger travellers (18-29 years) are the adventurers and travel from October-December - the honeymooners are a subset of this segment) and the families market normally visit during the April-June quarter.
On the profile of Indians visiting New Zealand, Craig said the younger travellers (18-29 years) are the adventurers and travel from October-December - the honeymooners are a subset of this segment) and the families market normally visit during the April-June quarter.
Less Paperwork Before Travellers Fly Away
Millions of travellers leaving New Zealand could be spared the chore of filling in departure cards following work done by Customs and Statistics New Zealand.
The agencies are figuring out a way of gathering important data without the need to fill in forms as part of wider moves to smooth the departure process through airports. Customs is also working with Aviation Security on a one-stop check at airports where passengers could be screened and information gathered for both agencies. About five million departure cards are collected a year.
Comptroller of Customs Carolyn Tremain told the New Zealand Airports Conference that crucial information, particularly relating on passengers' intentions to return or not, still needed to be collected. The goal was to do away with the cards altogether but there was not yet a deadline for this.
Customs numbers had been boosted by six staff around the country following new rules cutting the number of duty free cigarettes from the start of this month. Previously 200 cigarettes were permitted duty free but this had been cut to 50. In the first three days of the new law coming into effect around 80kg of tobacco was put in amnesty bins and Customs had collected $7500 in extra revenue.
"I Will Close You Down" Warns Key
Prime Minister John Key delivered a stern warning to adventure tourism operators - meet safety rules or they will be closed down. "I am deadly serious, I will close you down," he said at the Tourism Industry Association summit in Wellington at the beginning of the month.
Key, who is also Tourism Minister, said 50 deaths during the last 10 years had started to generate bad headlines overseas, in Britain in particular. Although the adventure sector had been "slow" to recognise the need for new rules, most operators had high standards, he said and added, "My real focus is that we don't destroy the golden goose. Our risk is the rogue operator."
WorkSafe NZ was now auditing adventure businesses, although that process is taking longer than expected and operators had been granted a one month extension to finish the inspection job. Those in breach of the new regulations risked being fined thousands of dollars a day. Key said there was always risk in some activities but they needed to be operating within a well-regulated regime.
Key said New Zealand's tourism market faced hot competition from other destinations and risked losing visitors if they didn't feel safe here. Tourism is New Zealand's second biggest export earner (behind dairy) earning $10.3 billion or 15.3 per cent of New Zealand's foreign exchange earnings in the year ended March 2014. It is estimated that tourism directly or indirect supports 8.3 per cent of total employment in New Zealand or 166,800 full-time equivalent jobs.
Developing SEO Content for Your Website
Compiled by Steph Kendall
If you want to achieve high rankings on the search engines for your website, then publishing optimised textual content is a key requirement. So let's be precise about what this actually means – it means 'optimised' text – that's text which includes keyword searches and phrases relevant to your audience and to the context of what you're writing about. And it means publishing 'text' rather than images, YouTube clips and animation.
- It does not mean publishing realms of irrelevant, spammy text (i.e. text which is overladen with keyword phrases that make the text nonsensical to any real person) that makes little or no sense to the viewer
- It does not mean publishing pages which are detrimental to the logical structure or architecture of the website
- It should not mean sacrificing the look and layout of your website design.
What else does it mean:
- It means creating thoughtfully constructed pages, written with the human reader in mind - more importantly, with your target audience in mind
- Creating a naturally flowing structure - pages that 'lead' the interested reader onto the next sub-page and piece of information through use of menus, sub-menus and indexing
- Choosing to write on subjects and topics that provoke interest, discussion and engagement from your readers
- Writing regularly to refresh web pages, posts and website content
- Providing platforms (such as social media) for people to respond to your content.
Google's Quality Guidelines
Google, the world's most popular search engine is very clear about what it regards as quality content. There is no point trying to 'trick' your way out of providing it – in the long-term, you simply stand to lose ground to competitors who consistently invest time and energy in getting their content right.
Google's basic principles:
- Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.
- Don't deceive your users.
- Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you, or to a Google employee. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"
- Think about what makes your website unique, valuable, or engaging. Make your website stand out from others in your field.
What to Include in a Content Strategy
Here are a few ideas about what types of content tourism websites can publish to interest their readers, who are all to one extent or another 'travellers':
- Tips for packing – What to pack, what weather to expect, what to leave at home
- Suggested itineraries (for one day, weekend, short-term or long-term visit) – include accommodation, transport, travelling times and distances, sight-seeing and activity ideas and options
- Information about local activities – festivals, attractions
- Specific information about your business (FAQ)
- Testimonials and stories from happy customers (include photographs for added interest)
- Staff bios and interesting stories about them
- E-books – free traveller information, recipes from the local area, restaurant guides, what's on information, festival brochure, etc.
It's easy to come up with a great deal of content – the trick is to keep it organised (and easy to index), think more rather than less pages – 300 words per page is usually about right including headings and links.
10 Tips to Improve Business
Compiled by Steph Kendall
In light of John Key's recent remarks to adventure tourism operators, this month we're focussing on a few suggestions for businesses operating in this sector:
- Firstly, check out the industry supported website, http://www.supportadventure.co.nz/ - a one-stop-shop for help on safety matters.
- Review activity Safety Guidelines (ASGs) for your specific activity
- Undertake an external safety audit even if your activity is not covered by the Adventure Activity Regulation
- Review the Health and Safety in Employment (Adventure Activities) Regulations 2011, click on http://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2011/0367/latest/DLM3961552.html
- View WorkSafe NZ's guidance material on managing the risk of drugs and alcohol in adventure activities, click on http://www.business.govt.nz/worksafe/information-guidance/all-guidance-items/guidance-for-managing-drug-and-alcohol-related-risks-in-adventure-activities/managing-drug-alcohol-related-risks-adventure-activities.pdf
- Review regulations and guidance for adventure tourism operators http://www.business.govt.nz/worksafe/information-guidance/all-guidance-items/adventure-activities-regulations-guidance-for-operators/guidance-for-operators.pdf
- Write or update your Safety Management Plan – If you need help creating your first SMP, view the Template provided at, http://www.supportadventure.co.nz/safety-management-plans/writing-your-plan
- Set a realistic schedule to get all your processes and plans in place. View Templates for help in creating: activity report, emergency response field card, equipment register and inspection calendar, equipment logs, hazard register, incident report from, internal review calendar and checklist, job role and safety responsibility form, job role competence checklist, trip management plan, trip report, staff induction form, staff safety meeting agenda.
- Test your Safety Management Plan and review it regularly.
- Last but not least, stay up to date with safety initiatives from around the industry, and on the Adventure Activity Regulations and other government requirements by signing up for the newsletter at http://www.tianz.org.nz/index.cfm/Adventurenewsletter/
More Business Tips
You'll find more business tips in our newsletter archive, alongside:
Top Tourism Site of the Month
This month's Top Tourism Site Award goes to The Gentle Cycling Company, Nelson.
This website is designed with a great deal of white space, which lends it a thoroughly calming air – perfectly suited in fact to its business proposition: cycling trips for lovers of food, art and beautiful landscapes. Forget the fast-paced adrenalin-pumped action websites promoting skydiving or bungy jumping, this website is as gentle on the sights and senses as a gentle cycle through the Nelson countryside might be. The gentleness comes from a muted colour palette including dark grey body which is an easy to read size – perfect for seniors (most probably the target market?).
As a WordPress site, the website should be easy to update and with an SEO plug-in, optimisation options are inbuilt and a little time could be spent on the effective optimisation of the Meta Data.
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: Ground Floor, 518 Colombo Street, Christchurch