Targeting the shoulder season

The launch of Tourism New Zealand’s next generation of 100% Pure New Zealand campaign this month marks a significant shift in timing for us as we focus on promoting arrivals in the shoulder season. The majority of our marketing effort is going into attracting visitors during the months of October, November, March and April which is why our campaign is being launched now rather than later in the year to attract summer visitors.

The shift to an extended peak season is already beginning which is encouraging. Total holiday arrivals for May were up 16.5 per cent making for a record-breaking autumn.

Australia, China and the USA will remain the top tier of markets for Tourism New Zealand. Visitor arrivals from China for the year ending May were up a staggering 31.1 per cent and there is continuing evidence that we are attracting the independent traveller, who are a longer staying higher value visitor from this market.

Aviation is always important to our industry and Air New Zealand’s announcement regarding the commencement of flights between Houston in the USA and Auckland is great news for tourism in New Zealand. This new service, starting in December 2015, will enable us to broaden New Zealand's reach into the East Coast of the USA and the States that already deliver our second, third and fourth largest arrival numbers namely Texas, New York and Florida. Residents of southern States are known to travel during their summer to avoid the heat, which aligns perfectly to Tourism New Zealand's strategy to encourage shoulder season travel.

We will also focus on our priority emerging markets of Indonesia, India and Latin America. The number of visitors from these markets is relatively small but the markets are performing really well. Total arrivals from Brazil for the year ending May 2015 were up 12.1 per cent, Indonesia was up 6 per cent and arrivals from India were up a staggering 30 per cent which confirms the potential we see from this market and supports our increased activity to drive arrivals.

The latest evolution of 100% Pure New Zealand focuses on the range and closeness of New Zealand’s attractions, which makes New Zealand a compelling holiday destination.

The idea of ‘everything close’ is brought to life through the campaign – ‘Every day a different journey’. This includes a new commercial which shows a couple moving seamlessly from one spectacular experience to the next. The new commercial will appear on television and in cinemas in Australia, and online and in paid online media activity across all our priority markets. It’s an exciting new phase for 100% Pure New Zealand as it turns 16 this year, making it one of the world’s most enduring and successful destination campaigns.