Business Bulletin : July 2019

Compiled by Steph Kendall

In this bulletin:

• Good Morning from New Zealand!
• Business Centre - Advertising Options
• Air NZ Top Job Vacancy
• International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy (IVL)
• The New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority (NZeTA)
• World's Best Vineyards
• Tourism Site of the Month: Quail Lodge

Good Morning from New Zealand!

Kiwis were asked to star in home-made videos as part of the 100% Welcome-100% pure New Zealand campaign, saying "good morning" from around the country.

Videos of Kiwis saying "good morning world" in their favourite places around New Zealand launched in June through the Tourism New Zealand website, with one video showing each day for a year.

This is part of the wider 100% pure campaign run by Tourism New Zealand for the last 20 years. The latest campaign focuses on the New Zealand experience and will be live in Australia, China, UK, USA, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Japan, India, Singapore and Korea.

Business Centre - Advertising Options

Have you checked out our Advertising Options recently? You can find out which of the many ways to advertise on New Zealand Tourism Guide best suits your business. Choose from four different listing options, web page, multimedia, banner and other ad spots - each way of advertising and having a link to your Web site on the NZTG site will benefit your business.

Why List on New Zealand Tourism Guide?

Having a listing on New Zealand Tourism Guide (tourism.net.nz) can benefit your business in several ways:

• Your website will receive direct clicks from people - over 6,000 people visit the New Zealand Tourism Guide Web site daily looking for travel and tourism related information.
• Your website benefits from an improved Google Page Rank - one of the algorithms used by Google Search to rank web pages in their search engine results.
• Your website benefits from a link on a quality Web site with over 47,000 its pages indexed by Google.

Air NZ Top Job Vacancy

The top job at Air New Zealand is available following Chief Executive Christopher Luxon's resignation last month. Candidates are expected from within New Zealand and overseas, with the Board expected to announce his successor in the near future. Mr Luxon remains in post until September. He has hinted that his future may lie in politics or an overseas corporate role. Luxon has regularly been talked about as a possible National Party candidate.

International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy (IVL)

From 1 July 2019, most international visitors entering New Zealand will be charged a levy of $35. It will be collected through the immigration system, with travellers paying the IVL alongside visa or NZeTA (New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority) fees.

The IVL is expected to raise over $450 million over the first five years, and the levy is intended to help ensure tourism growth is sustainable and continues to enrich New Zealand and New Zealanders. Projects funded by the IVL will contribute to the long-term sustainability of tourism in New Zealand, by protecting and enhancing our biodiversity, upholding New Zealand's reputation as a world-class experience, and addressing the way critical tourism infrastructure is funded.

Most people entering New Zealand on a temporary basis will need to pay the IVL. This includes for a holiday (including through the working holiday scheme), some student visas and some short-term work visas. There are some exceptions, most notably Australian citizens and permanent residents, and people from many Pacific Island counties.

• For more information, visit the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment website.
• Find out how this levy, "admission fee" has been reported in the UK press.

The New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority (NZeTA)

The IVL and the New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority (NZeTA) are separate but connected government initiatives. The NZeTA is for visa waiver travellers and Australian Permanent Residents (Australian citizens are exempt).

From 1 October 2019, these travellers will be required to hold an NZeTA in order to board their flight or cruise vessel. Requests for an NZeTA can be made from July 2019. The NZeTA will help New Zealand manage the increasing numbers of travellers forecast to come to New Zealand in the future by reducing the time needed for border clearance, strengthening border security and bringing New Zealand's border controls into line with international best practices.

In addition to the border security function, the NZeTA platform will be used as a collection tool for the IVL (alongside the Visa application system). The Electronic Travel Authority will be valid for two years. Final costings are still under development, but we expect it will cost between $9 and $12.50 per person. The Government will announce the final fee in the first half of 2019.

For more information, visit the New Zealand Immigration website.

World's Best Vineyards

The winners of the 'World's Best Vineyards', an awards enterprise which aims to raise the profile of wine tourism and encourage visitors from all over the world to explore the world's finest wineries were announced recently. The winners were selected from over 1500 nominated wineries and were chosen by a voting academy from around the globe. The top ten winners are:

1. Zuccardi Valle de Uco, Argentina
2. Bodega Garzón, Uruguay
3. R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia, S.A., Spain
4. Quinta do Crasto, Portugal
5. Catena Zapata, Argentina
6. Montes, Chile
7. Clos Apalta Winery, Chile
8. Rippon, New Zealand
9. Marqués de Riscal, Spain
10. Weingut Dr. Loosen, Germany

The World's Best Vineyards is sponsored by the International Wine Challenge and designed by the team at William Reed, which is an information source for the food and drink industry.

Top Tourism Site of the Month

This month's Top Tourism Site Award goes to Quail Lodge.

www.luxurylodge.nz

Quail Lodge is a luxury 2-bedroom apartment in Drury Auckland with 180-degree views across the Auckland countryside to the Manukau Heads. Quail Lodge has an elegant-looking website that features beautiful images throughout the site. The design uses white-space to great effect and its fully responsive layout is very attention-catching. The logo for the business is also very stylish and fits in perfectly with the overall design.

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:

1. Enhance New Zealand as a travel destination
2. Publish useful and informative content
3. Are laid out in a professional and aesthetically-pleasing manner
4. Are designed effectively for the World Wide Web
5. Demonstrate easy functionality, interactivity, originality, outstanding graphic quality and marketing reach.

We welcome any feedback — send your comments to: news@tourism.net.nz