Tourism New Zealand's trade familiarisation (famil) season is
well underway, with high-end product buyers and frontline retail
agents from Korea, Japan, the US, China, Europe and India scheduled
to visit New Zealand over the next three months.
Six product managers from Australia spent five-days in New
Zealand at the end of March, kicking off the busy season for our
famil programme. The group's itinerary was designed to highlight
short-break holiday experiences and fit with the 'Which New
Zealand Are You This Time?' campaign, which is currently
running in market and promotes the breadth of experiences on offer
in New Zealand year-round.
Product managers involved with the famil said they appreciated
the opportunity to experience a wide range of products. The group
visited Christchurch, Tekapo, Aoraki/Mt Cook and Queenstown.
"I seriously felt I'd been away for two weeks, not five days,
with the amount of product we were able to cover in a short space
of time," said Elizabeth Bezzina from Grand Pacific Tours, a coach
tour operator that specialises in tours to New Zealand for the
senior market.
Michelle Bassil from Viator said the trip had
helped her identify opportunities for product development. "All
attractions, restaurants, accommodation were of a very high
standard…Having experienced this first hand I now have the
opportunity to research a little more and follow up at TRENZ."
The trade famil programme aims to bring travel sellers up to
speed with all the latest developments in the New Zealand tourism
industry and to build new relationships with key travel trade
partners around the world.
Tourism New Zealand hosts around 20 travel seller famils each
year, with over 154 agents participating in the programme in 2009.
April, May and June are traditionally the busiest months for famils
and ten groups are scheduled to travel here during these three
months this year.
Find our
more about our trade marketing and famil programmes