Cut a Major Blow to Wellington Tourism

Thursday 23 November 2006

Tasman Airline Schedule Cut a Major Blow to Wellington Tourism

Air New Zealand’s announcement today to reduce Trans Tasman air services to Wellington is a major blow to Wellington tourism, says the city’s tourism marketing organisation.

“Air capacity, frequency and price are critical to driving growth out of the Australian visitor market,” says Positively Wellington Tourism CEO Tim Cossar. “This reduction in capacity will make it more challenging to grow this strategically important market.”

“Positively Wellington Tourism has targeted the Australian market aggressively in recent years and overall market growth has been solid. We have a number of challenges in the market getting Wellington accepted as a short break visitor destination. Any reduction in capacity is likely to seriously impact on our ability to grow the market in the short-term.”

“We are committed to the Australian market and plan to continue investing in joint venture marketing activities. Airlines are critical to this, and we need to work even more closely with them, to build further capacity into the future.”

“Air New Zealand, as the national carrier, is a critical player in the New Zealand tourism industry. We partner with them on a number of campaigns, and remain committed to working with them as we strive to position Wellington as a destination of choice in the Australian market.”

Australian visitor market facts

- Australia is Wellington’s largest international visitor market.
- Wellington attracts around 200,000 Australian visitors per year, out of a total of 590,000.
- Australians account for 929,000 international visitor nights, out of a total of 3.7 million international visitor nights.
- Positively Wellington Tourism and its partners currently invest $650,000 a year in Wellington’s Australian marketing campaign. The campaign forms part of Tourism New Zealand’s ‘What’s On’ campaign.

ENDS

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