Activity in Market

Tourism New Zealand Activity

Campaign

The 100% Pure New Zealand campaign is planned to run nationally in the US from late December promoting travel through the New Zealand summer.

An eighteen month campaign with travel booking website http://www.orbitz.com/ has seen year-on-year growth of 20 per cent in bookings from this source. There has been a major increase in New Zealand content on the site and New Zealand now has one of the most comprehensive listings.

Traffic to www.newzealand.com/travel/usa received a boost in November when Tourism New Zealand ran advertising during NBC coverage of The Kiwi Golf Challenge. The golf event was organised and sponsored by Julian Robertson and played at his two New Zealand properties: Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers.

Trade

Weekly ‘webinar’ training continues with a focus on New Zealand’s regions. On average 80 agents each week are joining the interactive sessions and feedback to date has been positive.

Work continues with partners to get great travel deals on the US homepage of Tourism New Zealand’s consumer website, www.newzealand.com/travel/usa.

Tourism New Zealand hosted several North American product managers for a ‘Classic New Zealand Wine Trail’ famil in November. They visited Hawke’s Bay, the Wairarapa, Wellington and Marlborough.

Media

Tourism New Zealand hosted eight US media outlets during the period July to November. Publications included Islands Magazine, agenda-setting online newspaper The Huffington Post and Lexus Magazine.

A feature on Marlborough and the Queen Charlotte Track appeared in the LA Times in November (circulation 1.1 million). A four-page story about New Zealand golf courses reached 1.5 million readers of Golf Magazine and TIME magazine ran a short story on the Far North that reached an audience of 3.3 million.

Auckland and Tauranga featured in an episode of The Amazing Race that aired to an audience of 11 million in October. New Zealand was one of eight countries to be visited in the sixth season of this Emmy Award-winning reality television show.

New Zealand graced the cover of National Geographic Adventure’s October 2008 edition (circulation 500,000+), with a 10 page pictorial/editorial featuring Tongariro, Kaikoura, Mount Cook, Wanaka, Milford Sound and Moeraki.

Events

Tourism New Zealand, Air New Zealand and the New Zealand Consulate jointly hosted an event to celebrate the return of Toi Maori to San Francisco in October. Around 100 media, trade and other contacts attended the event, getting a taste of Maori culture and the opportunity to preview the Maori art on display in the exhibition.

Airline and Competitor Activity

Airlines globally are continuing to cut flights. There has been a 7 per cent decrease in the number of scheduled flights worldwide over the last year and a further 10 per cent reduction is expected in 2009-11 (Source: USA Today).

Domestic air carriers in the US have been offering heavy discounting in the run up to the holiday season. Domestic air fares are at their lowest since 2001 and, though fewer services are operating, load factors are at 90 per cent.

Air New Zealand has dropped its fares for key periods over the New Zealand summer, but flying to Australia out of the US is still cheaper than flying to New Zealand.

Qantas launched the A380 on 20 October, with services commencing once a week from Los Angeles to Melbourne and to Sydney. The airline plans to move to daily services from March next year.

Qantas and Tourism Australia are spending large sums to promote travel on the back of the launch of the movie Australia, which opened in the US in November. New Zealand is expected to see some dual-destination benefit from the promotion of the film.

Qantas has also been promoting a limited offer of 2-for-1 air fares for all fare classes to Australia and New Zealand between mid-February and the end of April. Fares start at USD$879 Los Angeles - Auckland per person.

Virgin Australia expects to launch its Los Angeles to Sydney service in February 2009. The combination of Virgin Australia’s new flights and Qantas’ move to the A380 has increased capacity to Australia by 20 per cent in the last year.

Other destinations, particularly those close to the US, are advertising aggressively to stimulate travel over the months ahead.