The program, which launched while international borders were closed, provided a new way for tourism operators to reach New Zealand consumers, resulting in over $7 million in bookings for 69 participating tourism businesses.

“Tourism New Zealand is committed to supporting recovery and the industry and this project has been successful in driving a significant increase in bookings during a time where industry needed it most,” says René de Monchy, Tourism New Zealand’s Chief Executive.

Tourism New Zealand partnered with Australian agency The Pistol and Meta (Facebook) to create the platform.

People who research tourism experiences on the newzealand.com website then receive dynamically-personalised Facebook ads highlighting relevant tourism offerings. These drive them directly to operators’ own sites to book.

The platform gives operators access to a dashboard so they can track performance in real-time, including how much traffic Tourism New Zealand is driving to their site and how many purchases it is generating.

Since the initial trial began in May 2020, the platform has achieved over 5,000 conversions, driving as much as $19 in revenue for every dollar of ad spend.

Tourism New Zealand is investigating when the platform will be available to new participating operators now that the borders are open.