Newsletter : April 2017
Written by Steph Kendall
Welcome to the New Zealand Tourism Guide www.tourism.net.nz April 2017 issue. If you have news or comments, please email us news@tourism.net.nz.
In this April newsletter:
- Vegas to Invercargill - Transport Tourism Capital of New Zealand
- Golf Tourism Gets Spring Boost
- Southland's Beaches Reach Over One Billion People
- Kiwi Bucket List for Australians
- Overseas Reports Suggest NZ Overwhelmed by Tourism
- Tools for Business: Be.Accessible
- Tourism Site of the Month: Warblers Retreat
Vegas to Invercargill - Transport Tourism Capital of New Zealand
It's hoped that motoring enthusiasts, transport buffs and fans of BIG machinery make Invercargill their must-visit destination as Transport World invests in a third attraction Dig This for the country's southernmost city.
Dig This is based on the hugely popular formula established by Dig This Las Vegas, where visitors can get to grips with heavy machinery such as bulldozers, excavators, mini excavators and skid steers in a giant, adult-sized sand pit. Designed to appeal to both young and old, visitors get to operate heavy machinery whilst being challenged to a series of games.
Watch the trailer for Dig This Invercargill in action, posted by Transport World.
Scheduled to open in spring 2017, Transport World is busy preparing a new site for Dig This Invercargill located on Otepuni Ave – look out for heavy equipment crossing.
Golf Tourism Gets Spring Boost
The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour heads to New Zealand for the first time for the MCKAYSON New Zealand Women's Open from 28 September to 1 October this year at the Windross Farm Golf Course in Ardmore, Auckland. The tournament boasts a purse of US$1.3 million and is being played in Auckland, home to Lydia Ko, the world No.1.
"I am so excited with this announcement to bring the LPGA to my hometown in Auckland," said Ko. "New Zealand is – I am sorry I am biased – the most beautiful country in the world. I am honoured to be the first player to sign up to play. It is going to be amazing for me and my family to host my LPGA friends in my country. I want to see golf grow in New Zealand and more women playing the game, so this news is fantastic."
Windross Farm is New Zealand's newest golf course and Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said coverage of the event will help grow golfing tourism, to the benefit of Auckland. "The tournament allows us to work with government to showcase Auckland to wider, high-value tourism markets like those in China, Japan, South Korea, the US, Australia and the UK. The media exposure alone in the high-value markets will reach millions of people."
Visit www.nzwomensopen.com for tickets and to see how New Zealand's golf tourism is being showcased and to see the spotlight on host city, Auckland.
Southland's Beaches Reach Over One Billion People
The 2017 Ultimate Waterman event held in Southland saw invited contestants – the world's best watermen – battle for the title in eight different surfing disciplines. Southland's best and most isolated coastal spots helped to create a unique event producing incredible waves against the backdrop of magnificent scenery.
Through Red Bull TV's coverage of the event, Southland's stunning beaches and majestic scenery has been seen by a worldwide audience of more than one billion people.
Kiwi Bucket List for Australians
More than 18,000 votes were received by Experience Oz + New Zealand in a month-long poll of Australian consumers. Respondents were asked to nominate their top 10 bucket list experiences from a list of 100 nominated 'must-do' Kiwi experiences.
The poll was a core component of a tourism marketing campaign created by Experience Oz + New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand called 'Amazing is Just Across the Ditch'. The campaign was designed to encourage bookings and promote travel to New Zealand during the off-peak autumn period.
The top 10 experiences on the Bucket List were:
- Swimming with dolphins in Akaroa
- Cruising Fiordland Sounds
- Taking a Lord of the Rings Tours
- Visiting the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers
- Jet boating at Huka Falls
- Rotorua's geothermal attractions
- Cruising Marlborough Sounds
- Black water rafting in Waitomo Caves
- Wine tasting in Marlborough
- Kayaking Fiordland's fiords
Overseas Reports Suggest NZ Overwhelmed by Tourism
One of the largest newspapers in Minnesota published an interesting article online featuring the fate of 53 elderly American tourists during their New Zealand holiday when their flight from Auckland was delayed. The tourists were put up in a traditional Māori meeting house for the night because all of the city's hotels were full.
Whilst the article makes (positive) comment on the tourists' unique cultural experience, it also goes to some lengths to paint the picture of the country's infrastructure struggling to meet increased demand from tourists and suggests that a lack of capacity may "end up harming the nation's biggest foreign exchange earner."
News of scenic walks becoming congested, overloaded sewage systems, shortage of hotel rooms, car parks under strain, public toilets and waste water facilities overwhelmed – these add up to a concern that a bad tourist experience may harm New Zealand's clean-green image and dent the industry.
The article includes comment that there are growing calls for visitors to pay to enter national parks - as they do at Yellowstone and Grand Canyon national parks in the U.S.
Tools for Business: Be.Accessible
The New Zealand Tourism Guide is the first New Zealand tourism and travel of its type to achieve a gold accessibility rating, awarded after an accessibility assessment by Be. Accessible.
Be. Accessible is a social change organisation that offers a framework for accessibility and aims to create a more accessible country for everyone. All organisations that undergo an accessibility assessment, and meet the standard minimum requirements, are awarded a rating depending on the level of accessibility achieved. Around 25% of New Zealanders have temporary or permanent disabilities that mean access to education, employment, and the community can be difficult or limited.
Minnie Baragwanath, Chief Executive of Be. Institute encourages others to embrace the growing NZ accessible tourism movement. "We are hugely excited for the team at New Zealand Tourism Guide who have worked hard to ensure that their website is usable and accessible to all visitors wishing to find out more about enjoying our country or their local region. This is a wonderful step change for the Be. movement that the New Zealand Tourism Guide have embraced."
Kevin Prince, the Be.Accessible Coach who assessed the website, says: "New Zealand Tourism Guide takes accessibility very seriously – it is a complex site, but the team engaged enthusiastically to adapt their original design to meet the needs of access customers.
"They were able to see where the standard web designs were awkward for keyboard users or screen readers and updated their code – innovatively – to meet the needs of all users. We were particularly impressed by the way that they took a map index that only mouse users could use and made an effective keyboard interface without changing the visual appearance. They have also ensured that practical accessibility is at the heart of the content they control."
Other changes made to the website which contributed to its achievement of the preeminent rating included having keyboard focus visible for low vision users, and the addition of captions to videos on the website which not only suit access customers but non-English speakers.
If you want to follow the path of New Zealand Tourism Guide and improve your business's accessibility, take a look at the Be.Welcome program.
Top Tourism Site of the Month
This month's Top Tourism Site Award goes to Warblers Retreat.
Warblers Retreat is a luxury lodge and bed & breakfast accommodation near Auckland and gets a mention this month because it ticks off website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter presence so well. The look and feel of the business's presentation across all channels is very cohesive, creating a strong and distinctive brand presence and very much a sense of the business owners keeping current and being across 'it' (the 'it' being online marketing).
The photographic presentation of the accommodation is particularly strong, the text and navigation very clear – although the slider is a bit unusual, it has the effect of wanting to play around with it (and stay on the site – job done!).
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