Tourism New Zealand landed awards for the most innovative social
media campaign and as the best destinational marketing organisation
at the TravelMole and EyeforTravel Innovation Awards in Singapore
last night.
TravelMole Media Group is one of the world's leading on-line
tourism publishers, reaching 400,000 tourism professionals and 90
million consumers in 132 countries.
Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler said the
destinational marketing award recognised the transformation of newzealand.com from a static source of
information into a dynamic site carrying content from a wide range
of sources alongside official information from Tourism New
Zealand.
"Our ambition is to ensure that newzealand.com continues to meet
the changing needs of online users," Mr Bowler said. "We see the
site as a marketplace that connects potential visitors with tourism
operators and travel sellers. The site is at the centre of our
marketing strategy to convert preference into sales.
"Opening up the site's content so that local tourism operators,
travel sellers, and visitors can share their New Zealand
experiences has been a valuable shift. The ability to tap into real
life experiences can be a key aspect in helping people to go ahead
and book their dream holiday to New Zealand -- and we now have a
breadth and depth of destination content that is second to
none."
Tourism New Zealand's social media campaign award was for its
New Zealand 100% Pure Facebook presence, which Mr Bowler said had
become an integral platform for supporting Tourism New Zealand's
digital marketing strategy.
"Surveys tell us that over two-thirds of travelers consider the
recommendations of other travelers to be more credible than those
of an advertisement, even if they don't know the other travelers.
That underlines the immense potential power of social media.
"Our 100% Pure New Zealand Facebook presence has grown
significantly in the past year. We've been successful at building a
large community of fans and advocates -- people who love New
Zealand and are happy to share their real-life experiences.
"Our role now is to curate and amplify the best content from the
crowd. We've produced Facebook apps which fuel the community growth
and these have been highly successfully at supporting marketing
campaigns. By engaging with social media, we're also able to gain
real insights into our consumers.
"We believe our social media strategy is proving highly
effective in converting interest in New Zealand to actual arrivals,
and it is very pleasing to see our approach recognised with this
innovation award," Mr Bowler said.
Visit the New Zealand 100% Pure Facebook page here.
Check out some of our other award
highlights.