NEWS RELEASE
Tourism Australia New Zealand Region Welcomes New Marketing Manager
Executive Appointment Tony Rogers
Auckland, New Zealand. 01 August 2011.
Tourism Australia has appointed Tony Rogers as its new Marketing Manager for New Zealand.
Mr Rogers has spent the last decade of his career in senior marketing positions with BMW Group New Zealand and, most
recently, Avanti Bicycle Company. New Zealand is a priority market for Tourism Australia, delivering over $2bn to the
Australian economy each year with a 2020 vision to grown this up to the $4bn mark.
His move into one of the busiest and most challenging roles in the tourism sector comes as 1.16m Kiwis choose to take a
holiday in Australia each year.
Rogers cites his career to date and most recent change as being focused on industry sectors that he is personally
passionate about and holds true to the belief that “people expand their minds and their outlook on life through
different experiences. Travel has to be the most powerful way to bring different experiences into your life and
Australia has huge potential to deliver on a range of holiday experiences as rich and diverse as the continent itself.”
Building on such a large base with around one in every four Kiwis taking a trip Trans Tasman, Rogers has identified the
challenge as being to engage Kiwis with more of Australia in an effort to motivate them to venture further and stay
longer. Australia presents a strong brand with an incredibly high awareness but Rogers is determined to use the
marketing mix, especially across the advocacy and digital platforms to demonstrate the array of unique and authentic
Australian experiences waiting to be discovered.
To this end, Rogers says his challenge is to get Kiwis to re-assess what “brand Australia” means to them.
Industry partnerships is another area Rogers sees as key to the success of achieving his goals for Tourism Australia. As
with Avanti bikes and BMW, he says mutually beneficial partnerships are essential to success. “It’s one thing to engage
consumers with the right brand message in the right place at the right time, but you also need a strong network of
partners who embrace the campaign to ensure customers have an experience so enjoyable that they will not only tell
others about it but will want to repeat it themselves.”
Rogers commenced his post with Tourism Australia on the 4th July 2011 and reports to the General Manager New Zealand,
Jenny Aitken.
ends