Air New Zealand And Tourism New Zealand To Expand $20 Million Marketing Partnership

Claiming excellent benefits from a fruitful marketing partnership, both Air New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand announced the extension of their ongoing marketing pact though the 2016 financial year and will invest more than NZ$20 million.

Their joint marketing started in 2013 to augment travel to New Zealand from all international markets. The MoU mandates each company to invest more than NZ $10 million in the next 12 months in cooperative marketing efforts for tapping key markets such as China, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, North America, the United Kingdom, Europe and Latin America.

Under the extended partnership, aggressive marketing will be undertaken by Air NZ in South America and the United States, where it will be launching two direct services. They are Buenos Aires - Auckland and Houston - Auckland in December 2015.

Air New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Christopher Luxon noted that extension of partnership will give optimum leverage to tourism growth. He cited an example of the beneficial partnership, “Air New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand worked together on a winning bid and hosted China’s top reality TV programme ‘Dad, where are we going?’ to film in New Zealand. As a result, destination New Zealand was showcased to an enormous audience of more than 400 million people in China through television and a further 26 million through social media."

Effective Campaigns

Kevin Bowler, CEO, Tourism New Zealand also expressed the view that partnership has given tangible results and had augmented visitation to New Zealand. "Inbound tourism reached a new high in the past financial year with 2.94 million visitor arrivals, up 7 percent on the previous year. We know that working collaboratively extends the reach and effectiveness of our campaigns, and look forward to continuing to collaborate with Air New Zealand to build on the positive results we have achieved to date.”

Boom Time

Meanwhile, forecasts suggest New Zealand Tourism is in for a boom time with visitor spending set to skyrocket by 48 percent to NZ $11.1 billion by 2021. Visitor arrivals will jump from the 2.9 million recorded in 2014 to 3.8 million in 2021, according to the stats from Ministry of Business, and Employment, reports NZ City. This strong growth in tourism will have a strong contribution from Australians and Chinese tourists. According to Michael Bird, the ministry's general manager, Chinese visitors are now staying longer, visiting more regions and spending more. Forecast is that tourists from China will surpass those from Australia as the biggest spenders in the next seven years.

(For feedback/comments, contact the writer at k.kumar@ibtimes.com.au)