Newsletter : March 2018
Written by Steph Kendall
Welcome to the New Zealand Tourism Guide March 2018 issue. If you have news or comments, please email us news@tourism.net.nz.
In this March newsletter:
- Backpackagram Connects with Target Audience
- New Zealand's Popularity as Cruise Destination Continues to Grow
- Boost for New Zealand's Golf Tourism
- Queenstown Gears Up to Welcome Amway China
- New Era in Sustainable Design for Glenorchy
- Te Papa's New Art Gallery Opens
- How Tourists see New Zealand - Beautiful, but Expensive
- Tips for Business: Communicating Effectively in Words and Speech
- Tourism Site of the Month: She's a Lady Sailing Adventures
Backpackagram Connects with Target Audience
Tourism New Zealand won two Bronze medals at the prestigious AXIS awards for its innovative Backpackagram Instagram campaign. The awards recognised Tourism New Zealand's efforts to attract young backpackers from the UK, Germany and transient backpackers in Australia to New Zealand.
"This was a fun campaign, where we took six international travellers and created a reality TV show for social media. We essentially turned New Zealand into a competition. Each team challenge became an Instagram episode and showcased the adventures backpackers can have in New Zealand," says Tourism New Zealand's Director of Marketing, Andrew Fraser.
"The social media setting was fundamental to this campaign. We know from our experience and research that backpackers do not connect with traditional tourism marketing vehicles and rely on word of mouth and hearing about the experiences of others on social media. The Backpackagram campaign had the 'competitors' film themselves on GoPros to give an authentic first-person approach to sharing their story and this was complemented with footage from a film crew and drone that followed the teams. The combined approach was incredibly well received by the target audience. It was an action-packed adventure storytelling approach that showcased the social experiences backpackers can have within New Zealand's amazing landscapes and scenery."
New Zealand's Popularity as Cruise Destination Continues to Grow
New Zealand's popularity as a world-class cruise destination is continuing to grow, according to the latest Tourism New Zealand infographic published this month. Cruise market growth in New Zealand has been up 13 percent per annum since 2010, significantly higher than growth of the global tourism market at 7 percent per annum.
For the year ending June 2017, around 221,000 passengers arrived by cruise ship for a total of 1.36 million port days, spending a total of around NZ$164 million. Around 93 percent of these passengers were international visitors.
The most common cruise itinerary for New Zealand is Trans-Tasman, typically starting in Sydney. As a result, Australia is New Zealand's largest cruise market, contributing 50 percent of total cruise arrivals (~110,500). America comes in second, making up 18 percent of cruise arrivals (~39,780), closely followed by Europe with 17 percent (~37,570).
Auckland tops the list as New Zealand's biggest cruise destination, welcoming 142 cruise ships and 171,000 passengers for the year ending June 2017. Total expenditure by cruise passengers in Auckland over this period was around NZ$96 million. Otago and Southland came in second-equal, both welcoming 161,000 passengers over this period and contributing NZ$28 million and NZ$7 million respectively.
The Harbour City, Wellington, is New Zealand's fourth most popular cruise destination welcoming 158,000 passengers. This contributed NZ$25 million to the local economy. The Bay of Plenty saw the second-largest cruise spend, with NZ$59 million for the year ending June 2017.
Boost for New Zealand's Golf Tourism
This month's ISPS Handa New Zealand Open provided a valuable opportunity to promote New Zealand as a world class golfing destination. Golf journalists covered the event and travelled around New Zealand generating media opportunities worth more than NZD$1 million.
René de Monchy, Tourism New Zealand's Director of PR, Major Events and Trade said golf is a growing niche market, targeting the high value visitor. "Golf visitors spend more and stay longer than average holiday visitors. The ISPS Handa New Zealand Open provided a great opportunity to host the international golf media and to show them more of our spectacular courses while they were here. It was particularly important to attract journalists from our key golfing markets in Australia and the US but also to get coverage of the event in China, Japan and Korea."
To maximise the impact of the Open, Tourism New Zealand supplied destination footage and commentator notes to be used in the global broadcast of the event which was aired in New Zealand's target markets for golf (Australia, US, China, Japan and Korea).
Queenstown Gears Up to Welcome Amway China
Destination Queenstown's Chief Executive, Graham Budd says preparations are nearly complete in Queenstown to welcome the first wave of Amway's top sellers when they arrive on 2 April for their annual conference. The large-scale incentive business was secured in 2016 thanks to the joint efforts of Tourism New Zealand, Destination Queenstown, Air New Zealand and Immigration New Zealand.
It supports Tourism New Zealand's strategy to grow the value of international tourism to New Zealand by bringing visitors here in the shoulder season and generating a significant economic benefit.
Hilton Queenstown Resort and Spa, Double Tree Hilton Queenstown, and Queenstown Village Apartments are the accommodation providers for the group that will arrive in 11 waves of around 560, with each wave spending five days in Queenstown.
While they are in Queenstown the sellers will take part in half- and full-day itineraries around the region. Activities include a cruise in Milford Sound, a Nomad Safari Gold Seeker Tour, a Glenorchy Discovery Tour, a visit to Walter Peak Station, a tour of Arrowtown, and an AJ Hackett Bungy and Nevis Swing.
New Era in Sustainable Design for Glenorchy
A new accommodation has opened in Glenorchy which meets the most rigorous of all international sustainability standards. Just north of Queenstown, Camp Glenorchy has been designed according to the Living Building Challenge™ - promoted as the most rigorous of all international sustainability standards. This world-first guest accommodation aims to set new standards in sustainable tourism. It includes the South Island's largest solar garden and three wetlands developed to collect and fully process all wastewater onsite, producing clean water for irrigation of native plant landscaping.
The Living Building Challenge (LBC) requires seven "petals" of sustainability discipline including energy, water, materials and beauty.
Living Building Challenge (LBC)
Te Papa's New Art Gallery Opens
Toi Art, New Zealand's spectacular new art gallery officially opens in Wellington this month. The new NZ$8.4 million gallery spans two levels of Te Papa - New Zealand's national museum which sits on the Wellington waterfront - and is part of a major renewal of all the museum's exhibition spaces.
The gallery is free to enter. As well as art exhibitions it offers hands-on art activities for children and interactive experiences like a virtual reality visit to an artist's studio. Art will showcase iconic works from the national art collection, alongside new art created especially for this space.
The new art gallery is the first of a series of changes to the museum, as Te Papa transforms its 20-year-old permanent exhibits over the coming years.
How Tourists see New Zealand - Beautiful, but Expensive
Whilst New Zealand has retained its high ranking in a global World Economic Forum's travel and tourism competitiveness index, price-wise the industry has been put on notice to tread carefully. In terms of price-competitiveness, New Zealand was ranked 104th behind other destinations with a poor rating for price competitiveness identified as an area of concern.
The State of the Tourism Industry 2017 reports refers to a perception that New Zealand is becoming an expensive place to holiday and the quality of accommodation is not always up to scratch. One of the 354 respondents said New Zealand had to be careful not to price itself off the market, and well-heeled tourists were already beginning to baulk at the higher cost.
The report's author, WelTec tourism lecturer Jamie Smiler, said tourism operators had to remember they were part of a global market, with technology that made it easy to compare prices. Although New Zealand offered unique experiences that were difficult to replicate, the likes of glacier tours were available elsewhere for a lower cost, and it was a matter of demonstrating that it was worth the extra money to come here, he said.
Losing local custom to cheaper overseas destinations was also a real threat, and many operators felt little was being done to encourage domestic tourism which contributed more than half the industry's $35.9 billion in earnings last year.
State of the Tourism Industry 2017
Tips for Business: Communicating Effectively in Words and Speech
This is the fourth article in a series of tips for business focussing on how to give great customer service to international visitors. This month we focus on how the way we act and react can avoid misunderstandings between people.
Communication between people can be verbal or written and the tips below may help you use both methods more effectively.
Tips to improve spoken communication
- Use simple words and sentences.
- Use active language - ask questions such as who, how, where and when.
- Speak clearly and slowly. Don't shout.
- Use pauses in your speech so people have time to understand what you've said.
- Use single 'key words' to make sure others have understood you.
- Use body language - hand signals, miming etc. - to make yourself clear.
- Use different prompts such as maps, objects, pictures to show what you mean.
- Repeat things if necessary to make sure they are clear.
- Avoid jargon, slang, idioms and do not try to make jokes.
- If someone really doesn't understand you, get help, either from a colleague or fellow traveller.
It can be frustrating when communication is difficult or misunderstandings have occurred, try to acknowledge the other person's concerns, stay calm, keep a measured tone of voice and try to resolve misunderstandings rather than look for someone to blame.
Tips to improve written communications
- Use simple words and sentences.
- Use active language.
- Use single key words.
- Use diagrams and pictures to show what you mean.
- Avoid jargon, slang or idioms.
- Write in lower case (it is easier to read, e.g. Welcome not WELCOME).
- Give people time to understand written information before you ask a question.
- Check to make sure the other person understands.
Top Tourism Site of the Month
This month's Top Tourism Site Award goes to She's a Lady Sailing Adventures.
There is a beautiful simplicity about this website design which aims to promote sailing adventures in the Bay of Islands. Clean, crisp and clear pictures framed in nautical tones of blue and white convey the message perfectly - 'book a beautiful sailing trip'. The video is worth a watch too as its music and images perfectly capture the essence of a very Kiwi, very laidback, fun day out complete with a simple but tasty, healthy picnic, kayaking and snorkeling, and time to dangle your toes over the edge of the boat too. Very appealing.
The link to the bookit system takes you to straight to the nitty gritty end, but the excellent reviews on the landing page again work to make a potential customer feel confident about their buying decision.
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