Australia Does It Again

September 21, 2007

Australia Does It Again

TRADITIONAL rivalries between Australia and New Zealand must stop when it comes to holidays, with over 50,000 more Aussies visiting New Zealand over the last year.

Statistics New Zealand figures released today showed that 52,510 more Australians visited New Zealand in the year to August, than in the previous year.

It is now a year, since Tourism New Zealand launched its "What's On" campaign in Australia.

"August rounds off what has been a very strong winter season from Australia, kicked off by good early ski sales and underpinned by strong marketing," says Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive George Hickton.

Australia has seen positive growth in the holiday arrivals market for 10 out of the last 12 months.

Visitor arrivals from all countries were up 5.8 per cent in August compared with August last year.

Mr Hickton said arrivals from India and Thailand, traditionally strong markets during New Zealand's slower months, were also showing good growth driven by the incentive market and a growing number of independent travellers.

However, there is still work to be done with arrivals from Japan and the United States falling.

To counter this, Tourism New Zealand has just launched a new look to its successful 100% Pure New Zealand campaign.

The new campaign focuses on New Zealand's unique status as the world's youngest country - the last habitable landmass to be populated.

On Tuesday, Tourism New Zealand mounted a 24-hour takeover of the YouTube home page, followed up by three-months of a branded New Zealand channel.

So far, the Tourism New Zealand/YouTube site has had almost 640,000 hits.

"This is about ensuring that Tourism New Zealand is reaching the maximum number of people and using new technology to do that," Mr Hickton said.

Visitor Arrivals August 2007

Australia 78,188 up 12.3%
UK 12,672 up 4.4%
USA 10,626 down 6.5%
Canada 2,046 up 4.8%
China 9,020 up 17.7%
Korea 5,742 down 18.6%
Japan 9,878 down 10.2%

ENDS

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