Tourism New Zealand claims top honours at US tourism awards

The U.S. luxury travel network Virtuoso has named Tourism New Zealand as the “Tourism Board of the Year 2015” for being the "Most Engaged Tourism Board globally.” Virtuoso’s community of luxury travel advisors selected the winners from the network’s 59 partner tourism boards spread all over the world. Tourism New Zealand received the award at a gala ceremony in Las Vegas as part of the 27th Virtuoso Travel Week that began on Aug 12.

Partnership with Virtuoso

Hailing the award, Tourism NZ Chief Executive Kevin Bowler said the award is a recognition of the unequalled validation of Tourism New Zealand’s luxury strategy and the work it carried out under its pact with Virtuoso. “Our partnership with Virtuoso has allowed us to focus on developing the network’s understanding and knowledge of New Zealand – resulting in NZ$100 million (AU$88.6) in inbound travel in 2014 alone."

Kevin said the awards reflected Tourism New Zealand’s efforts to train, educate and inspire Virtuoso’s travel advisors in hard selling New Zealand’s luxury offering to the clientele and in enhancing the arrival of high-value visitors to the country. According to him, the award for "Most Engaged Tourism Board globally" amply reflected the work Tourism New Zealand has been doing with Virtuoso beyond the Americas. “This is fantastic recognition of the work we have been doing to support Virtuoso’s growth in new source markets in Europe and the Asia Pacific region."

Virtuoso Travel Week attracted 4,800 delegates from 90 countries. New Zealand sent 15 partner delegates to the show. Virtuoso Asia Pacific Managing Director, Michael Londregan noted that Australia and New Zealand are highly rated destinations among the top 10 most popular places in international leisure travel out of the United States.

“In the 2014 calendar year, the Tourism New Zealand/Virtuoso partnership was worth NZ$100 million (AU$88.6) to the New Zealand economy and we are pleased to be welcoming a new partnership with Tourism Australia, further strengthening our brand in the region,” he said. Londregan noted that in luxury tourism, relationships are the key and Virtuoso has successfully launched a number of strategic partnerships in the Asia Pacific region in 2015 that also included the extension of partnership with Tourism New Zealand.

Australian tourism

Meanwhile, latest reports say that China and Hong Kong are poised to overtake New Zealand as the biggest source of tourists to Australia. Very soon more tourists from China and Hong Kong will overtake New Zealanders in the matter of visiting Australia. It is expected to happen by middle of 2016, as is evident from the current trends. In June 2105, the number of tourists from China and Hong Kong to Australia hit 1.14 million, and marked an increase of 17.5 percent over 2014.

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