Marketing efforts set to attract more Indonesian visitors

27 November 2012

New Zealand marketing efforts set to attract more Indonesian visitors – massive new market opportunity for tourism

Celebrity Indonesian chef Farah Quinn promoting New Zealand to 46.5 million potential Indonesian travellers as part of major Auckland Airport campaign

Appealing to Indonesian’s love of social media and growing hunger for international travel is reaping rewards for Auckland Airport, with inbound arrivals to New Zealand from Indonesia already increasing by more than 19 per cent in the past twelve months, which has been assisted by the Airport starting to promote New Zealand.

A major new marketing campaign, aimed at further stimulating Indonesian awareness of New Zealand and driving inbound tourism, is set to run over December and January. It involves TV, print, digital, trade and the unique influence of well-networked celebrities – currently proving a great success.

The upcoming campaign features popular Indonesian TV personality and chef Farah Quinn, who has been showcasing the best New Zealand has to offer affluent Indonesian travellers. Farah, who toured and promoted New Zealand last week, has more than one million Facebook fans and nearly 400,000 Twitter followers – making her involvement a huge boost to the campaign.

Glenn Wedlock, General Manager Aeronautical Commercial for Auckland Airport says Indonesia is a major opportunity for New Zealand and according to Auckland Airport's Ambition 2020 analysis, Indonesia is forecast to be one of the fastest-growing outbound tourism markets by 2020.

"In just two months alone, we’ve seen the number of Indonesians travelling to Auckland in August and September increase by about 30 per cent compared to the same period last year. We believe the recent growth from Indonesia may just be scratching the surface.”

Auckland Airport is confident it can attribute a lot of the recent increase in visitor arrivals to the campaign it launched in March, also featuring Farah, which included a new bilingual (Bahasa Indonesian and English) website, www.luxurynz.co.id, and a Luxury NZ Facebook page that has generated 3500 unique visitors to the website each month since July 2012 and 37,000 fans, respectively.

”With a population of around 240 million, Indonesia comprises around 45 per cent of the ASEAN economy and is quickly transforming into a global economic powerhouse. There are more than 42 million Facebook users in Indonesia, and it is estimated that the number of millionaires will triple by 2015, according to a Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia wealth report,” says Mr Wedlock.

“The Prime Minister’s successful trade visit to Indonesia earlier this year opened a lot of business doors and we became more aware of the size of the Indonesian market and its growth in wealth. That visit also saw Auckland Airport signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Garuda Indonesia, which is increasingly emerging as an ambitious and global airline. In addition, we have seen Air New Zealand extend its popular and successful Bali service into a second season. This increase in air links comes at a time when our marketing activity is seeing growing numbers of Indonesians becoming aware of New Zealand’s attractions.”

Mr Wedlock says Auckland Airport is committed to building stronger ties with Indonesia.

“Farah Quinn has enabled us to better present the New Zealand story to the new emerging Asian opinion leaders and consumers where she has been a great ambassador for both countries and to maximise opportunities to connect and build strong, valued relationships.”

Farah visited Auckland, Matakana and Queenstown last week, making regular Facebook and Twitter updates and sharing content with her followers and fans, promoting the restaurants, gourmet markets, shops and tourist destinations she visited. She also met with local celebrity chefs. Her six year old son and Indonesian pop star/actress Jessica Iskander joined her for the tour.

"I've really enjoyed my second visit to New Zealand – it has been a blast experiencing new things and the people are lovely. This country is fast becoming my favourite holiday destination, and I definitely want to visit again soon because I know there is so much more to discover," says Farah.

"New Zealand is a great family destination with so many activities my son could enjoy, both in Auckland and Queenstown. With so many unique experiences on offer in the North and South Islands, it is a pleasure to be able to promote this amazing country to fellow Indonesian travellers back home."

Mr Wedlock added, "Our development over the past three years in digital marketing, combined with opening traditional trade partnerships, is working effectively to build an enduring relationship with Indonesian partners and consumers. It is important we recognise the changing needs in Indonesia and wider Asia and develop ways to deliver premium value offerings in the market that build a total New Zealand brand story. The New Zealand Government officials have been doing a fantastic job in the region to open access and as an industry it is important we secure further tourism, trade and air services growth. Our core focus is on growing connections, building market structures and industry partnerships to ensure current visitor arrivals grow from about 10,000 today to about 50,000 by 2020.”

-- ENDS –

© Scoop Media