Newsletter : November 2017
Written by Steph Kendall
Welcome to the New Zealand Tourism Guide November 2017 issue. If you have news or comments, please email us news@tourism.net.nz.
In this November newsletter:
- Eight Sustainability Goals Launched for NZ Tourism Businesses
- New Zealand Māori Tourism Rolls Out the Red Carpet
- Same Sex Wedding Industry May Slump
- Number of Jet Setters Jetting to NZ on the Rise
- New Kaikoura Marina Opens One Year After Earthquake
- Christchurch Adventure Park Set to Re-Open Next Month
- Google My Business
- Tourism Site of the Month: Rotorua Heritage Farm
Eight Sustainability Goals Launched for NZ Tourism Businesses
Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA) launched the New Zealand Tourism Sustainability Commitment establishing eight Goals and 14 Commitments for the tourism industry to attain and adopt by 2025.
The Commitment is a response to the boom times experienced by the industry according to TIA Chief Executive Chris Roberts. "The Tourism 2025 aspirational goal to reach $41 billion a year in total tourism revenue is on track to be achieved a number of years earlier than 2025," he said. "This has generated many business and employment opportunities, as well as benefitting New Zealand's economy and communities across the country."
"Now we are facing the challenges of managing and sustaining growth. Financially sustainable businesses can invest in environmental and social sustainability, maintaining and enhancing New Zealand for future generations of residents and visitors.
"We know some tourism businesses are already operating in line with the 14 Commitments, or exceeding them. That's a good start. It is our goal that every tourism business in New Zealand will commit to operating sustainably. The greater the buy-in, the more powerful it will be."
To track the tourism industry's progress, TIA will measure and report annually against each of the eight Goals and on the level of tourism business uptake of the 14 Commitments. More than 40 leading tourism businesses have already agreed to sign up to the Tourism Sustainability Commitment.
New Zealand Māori Tourism Rolls Out the Red Carpet
New Zealand Māori Tourism is welcoming a high profile Chinese delegation to Wellington this month with plans to promote the China New Zealand Year of Tourism 2019.
The China New Zealand Year of Tourism 2019 provides opportunities to host a series of bilateral, commercial, educational, trade, cultural and tourism events to showcase the special relationship between China and New Zealand.
With 18.9% of all tourist activities being specifically related to Māori experiences, it is important for Māori Tourism to nurture operators to ensure they can meet demand. However, as visitor numbers from China are down just over 2 per cent for the year to June, it's been recognised that New Zealand and China need to work together to create strategic targets.
Same Sex Wedding Industry May Slump
Australia's recent vote in favour of same-sex marriage will have a "huge impact" on New Zealand's thriving same-sex marriage industry, a long-time celebrant says.
Sheryl Mungal said the results of the public referendum in Australia would affect "a lot" of people in the industry.
61.6 per cent of participants in the Malcolm Turnbull government's postal survey said yes to marriage equality. The result paves the way for lawmakers across the ditch to join New Zealand and 23 other nations in legalising same-sex marriage.
Mungal, who lives in Auckland and has specialised in same-sex weddings since 2013, expected most of the Australian same-sex couples who had booked her for wedding ceremonies over the coming seasons to cancel. While she did get some bookings from couples in other countries that did not allow same-sex marriages, such as Singapore, the majority were from Australia.
A Tourism New Zealand spokesperson said New Zealand was recognised as a same-sex friendly country and ran a popular "100 per cent Pure Choice" campaign in Australia when same-sex marriage became legal here.
"While Tourism New Zealand markets to the wedding and honeymoon sectors, it does not generally specifically target the gay and lesbian community. New Zealand is a great destination for a wedding, honeymoon or romantic getaway - for all travellers."
Number of Jet Setters Jetting to NZ on the Rise
New Zealand is becoming a place of choice for the world's wealthiest with more jet setting their way to New Zealand than ever before.
A new luxury tourism report just released by Tourism New Zealand shows the premium market accommodation spend for the year ending March 2017 grew by an impressive 42% on last year.
"Attracting people who have the ability to travel anywhere in the world can be challenging, it's an extremely competitive market. New Zealand is proving attractive as a place the world's wealthy can escape to and experience a personalised itinerary that incorporates world class luxury accommodation and activities," says Lisa Gardiner, Tourism New Zealand's Manager Premium and Business Events.
"Return travel is particularly pleasing because it shows that the industry is delivering a fantastic experience that people want to have again and recommend to others."
"The luxury traveller is really important for New Zealand's economy because they have the potential to spend more in one day than an average tourist spends their entire stay."
New Kaikoura Marina Opens One Year After Earthquake
Kaikoura tourism operators are celebrating the opening of their new Kaikoura Marina - a year to the day when a massive earthquake rocked their town.
For wildlife tourism specialists Whale Watch Kaikoura and Encounter Kaikoura, the multi-million-dollar marina provides improved facilities and a return to their pre-earthquake summer operating schedules.
The marina opening comes just a month before the anticipated reopening of the main north - south highway linking Kaikoura with Marlborough to the north and the ferries between New Zealand's North and South islands. Remedial works will be on going but the road is scheduled to reopen for daytime traffic from 15 December.
The earthquake has also given Kaikoura some new natural visitor attractions including an extra kilometre of rocky seashore at the tip on the Kaikoura Peninsula, a new surf break in town, spherical 'dinosaur' boulders that emerged from the sea bed and curious Hope Springs where bubbles escaping from undersea fissures break through the ocean's surface.
Kaikoura, New Zealand's most visited wildlife destination, is home to several internationally recognised wildlife tourism operators including Whale Watch Kaikoura, Encounter Kaikoura, Kaikoura Kayaks, Wings over Whales and Seal Swim Kaikoura.
Christchurch Adventure Park Set to Re-Open Next Month
The Christchurch Adventure Park, home to New Zealand's longest chairlift at 1.8 kilometres and New Zealand's longest and highest zip line, had only been open a few weeks when February's Port Hills fire devastated forests and infrastructure, forcing an untimely closure.
The 365-hectare park in Christchurch's Port Hills officially opened on 16 December 2016 but by the time it closed, eight weeks later, more than 50,000 visitors had already passed through the gates.
The reopening is scheduled for 5 December and local sporting heroes, the national Kiwi rugby league team helped prepare a pump track - an off-road circuit of banked turns and features, designed to be ridden completely by riders "pumping" or creating momentum by up and down body movements. Designed for children, the pump track is a hugely popular feature at the park.
The fire saw the park close for 10 months while logging of approximately 600 acres of forest took place. The 26-tonne haul rope for the chairlift has been replaced along with the zip lines while park staff continues to rebuild existing mountain bike trails.
Google My Business
Over 100 Billion searches are performed on Google every month. So, if your business is not discoverable on Google, you are losing out on a huge business opportunity. Unsurprisingly Google makes it easy for small business to list their business on Google products such as Maps, Google+ and on search engines.
Google My Business is a free tool that allows you to list your local business easily, built web presence and possibly generate more leads. Your listing appears when people are searching for your business or businesses like yours on Google Search or Maps.
You need a Google account to start - find out more from the Google My Business information pages.
Top Tourism Site of the Month
This month's Top Tourism Site Award goes to Rotorua Heritage Farm.
Rotorua Heritage Farm offers visitors a traditional farm experience with the opportunity to join in with herding and mustering sheep in the same way as the early settlers of New Zealand had done. Rotorua Heritage Farm presents this opportunity through a very stylish, contemporary and responsive website design. It is particularly noteworthy for its quality photographs and it certainly markets its unique tourism experience well, including for example the use of top keywords in its domain name - an optimal search engine optimisation strategy.
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
- June 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