South Island Tourism Gets Together

Media Release

10 June, 2005

South Island Tourism Gets Together

For the first time ever all 10 regional tourism organisations in New Zealand’s South Island have co-operated to produce a comprehensive South Island brochure and website. http://www.visitsouthisland.co.nz

Aimed at the long-haul interactive traveller market, the 24-page brochure and corresponding website are motivational, featuring general and essential South Island information – travelling times and distances, maps, touring routes, websites, supported by strongly descriptive narrative and high quality imagery.

The website offers free souvenirs – South Island wallpaper and screensavers.

Christchurch and Canterbury Marketing (CCM) initiated the idea and drove the co-operative campaign, seeing it as a significant step forward.

Jason Hill, General Manager Marketing for CCM says, “At a number of levels, this brochure represents real progress. Our research tells us that prospective visitors focus on New Zealand first, North or South Island second, with individual regions a distant third.”

“There are huge advantages to this level of co-operation between local tourism bodies – consistency of message is one, shared costs is another. It also ensures that those smaller tourism regions, who don’t have significant funding for international promotion but who have a lot to offer international visitors, gain international profile”.

The brochure is a combined effort from the 10 regional tourism organisations (RTOs) of the South Island – Christchurch and Canterbury Marketing Ltd., Tourism West Coast, Latitude Nelson, Destination Marlborough, Tourism Dunedin, Venture Southland Tourism, Destination Fiordland, Destination Queenstown, Lake Wanaka Tourism and Tourism Central Otago.

CCM’s International Marketing Manager, Blair Hartland says the brochure answers a long-held demand from consumers and travel trade around the world.

Fifty thousand copies in English will be distributed to offshore offices of Tourism New Zealand, inbound tourism operators and wholesalers. A further twenty thousand foreign language copies of the brochure are planned in German, Japanese, Spanish and Dutch.

The brochure itself is targeted specifically at these long-haul offshore visitors, and has been produced to be consistent with the Tourism New Zealand inspired ‘interactive traveller’ target market – defined as the traveller who seeks out new experiences involving engagement and interaction.

The brochure’s release is timed to take advantage of TRENZ (Tourism Rendezvous New Zealand), the international New Zealand tourism trade exhibition being held in Christchurch from June 13-16.

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