Luxury travellers have been the focus of a range of recent
Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) trade activity in the North American
market with more than 400 agents being sold on the pleasure
that is a New Zealand luxury holiday.
Earlier this month TNZ attended the International Luxury Travel
Market (ILTM) Americas event, held in Mexico from October
1-3.
"Exhibiting at ILTM Americas provided a valuable opportunity for
us to promote luxury travel in New Zealand meeting with 40 buyers
from across North, South and Central America over the two days,"
says Gregg Anderson, General Manager Western Long Haul
Markets.
TNZ also attended Virtuoso Travel Week - the largest luxury
consortium show in North America. Over 3,900 premium buyers and
sellers attended the week long show which ran from August
11-17.
Over the week TNZ had a full appointment stream of four minute,
face to face meetings with around 600 agents.
"Events like Virtuoso are extremely valuable as they not only
provide great networking opportunities but help to keep New Zealand
top of mind as a luxury travel destination," says Gregg.
TNZ had three tables at the annual Destination Dinner, an invite
only event which brings together agents, operators and tourism
boards.
Nine New Zealand lodges were represented and three inbound
operators were represented alongside TNZ.
Over the past months TNZ has also been running a series of luxury
themed webinars, focusing on boutique hotels and lodges in New
Zealand for industry in the North American market.
"The feedback we have received from the webinars has been
extremely positive. Agents have told us that they find the content
of our webinars extremely valuable in learning about luxury
products and how best to sell them to their clients," says
Gregg.
Luxury work in the this market is set to continue over the next
few months with upcoming activity including a US Luxury Sales
Mission in mid-November which will see New Zealand suppliers visit
Chicago, New York and Philadelphia for wholesale and retail agent
training.
Visit our North
America marketing activity pages to read more about our work is
this market.