Australian Funding to Boost Key Tourism Market

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Australian Funding to Boost Key Tourism Market

Tourism New Zealand says a $2.5 million boost to New Zealand’s marketing in Australia will help offset the effect of declining numbers in some tourism markets .

Tourism Minister John Key announced the extra funding today to help Tourism New Zealand intensify its successful ‘What’s On’ marketing campaign in Australia.

Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive George Hickton says despite a drop off of numbers in some long-haul markets, the Australian market still holds potential.

"This additional funding will help profile New Zealand as a holiday destination through the quieter winter months and then in to summer.

“We now have an opportunity to attract Australian visitors to more of our regions as well as appealing to the ‘visiting friends and relatives’ market that we have not specifically focused on before.”

The ‘What’s On’ campaign was originally devised to attract more Australian visitors to New Zealand in the ‘shoulder seasons’ – that is autumn and spring. Last year for the first
time the campaign was used to promote travel to New Zealand in summer, and earlier this year was used to attract early-bird ski bookings to New Zealand.

“The $2.5 million will allow us to run the campaign regularly throughout the year,” says Mr Hickton. “But it will not just be used for advertising - we will be working on more opportunities to get Australian media telling stories about New Zealand. We will also be doing further work with the travel trade in Australia to collectively promote New Zealand as the place for Australians to take a holiday.”

Australia is New Zealand’s largest visitor market supplying almost 908,000 arrivals in the year to January 2009. Over summer, visitor arrivals from Australia rose while those from many other markets declined.

Launched in 2006, the ‘What’s On’ campaign was designed to promote travel to New Zealand by giving Australians more specific reasons to visit New Zealand, to encourage travel during the quieter spring and autumn months and to visit more regions of New Zealand.

ENDS

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