World Masters Games 2017

World Masters Games 2017 appoints official travel services provider

Leading Australasian travel services company AOT Group has been appointed to provide accommodation and tourism booking services for World Masters Games 2017.

As the exclusive official travel service provider, AOT will partner with the World Masters Games Organising Committee to bring thousands of athletes to Auckland for the world’s largest multi-sport event, making New Zealand the place to be in April 2017.

Chief Executive of the World Masters Games 2017, Jennah Wootten, says the appointment of AOT Group is a significant milestone in the event planning process.

“25,000 athletes are expected to compete in the Games from across 100 countries,” Ms Wootten says. “We want to ensure they have a seamless experience and are given the right advice about the best places to stay, along with inspiration on how best to maximize their time in New Zealand.

“We are already getting large numbers of inquiries from potential competitors about travel and accommodation. AOT Group will provide a ‘one stop shop’ across travel-related services and have access to an extensive inventory of accommodation types across hotels, motels, apartments, bed and breakfasts and backpacker style options.”

AOT Group General Manager - New Zealand, Jason Strong, says the partnership between WMG2017 and AOT will deliver online and offline accommodation and tourism activities.

“Accommodation procured by AOT on behalf of WMG2017 will be integrated into the online athletes’ registration site to enable athletes to register and book accommodation seamlessly and concurrently. This means all registering participants will be exposed to these offerings first and local industry products will be featured and bookable from the outset.”

Mr Strong says traditional offline channels such as inbound and wholesale trade channels will remain important for an event of this size and demographic.

Ms Wootten says an important outcome of the new relationship will be to keep accommodation rate levels consistent across the duration of the 10-day global event.

“We’re working closely with the AOT Group and the travel industry to ensure operators adopt a fair and reasonable approach to pricing,” she says.

“We want to ensure potential participants are not deterred from visiting New Zealand because of the expense. A successful Games will result in 266,000 visitor nights and a GDP impact for the country of $52m. The more participants we can attract, the better the outcome will be for all.”

Games participants will be able to research and book their travel plans online from later this month. In the meantime, information is available through wmg2017@aot.co.nz.

ENDS

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