Increase in Sydney-Queenstown flights welcomed

An increase in the number of flights from Sydney to Queenstown in this year’s ski season will help the government meet its goal of having 1 million Australian visitors to New Zealand over a 12 month period, Tourism Minister Damien O’Connor said today.

“Tourism in New Zealand has come a long way from not so long ago when the industry goal was to attract a total of 1 million international visitors. Now the Australian market alone is poised to deliver that number,” said Mr O’Connor.

“Air New Zealand’s announcement today is great news. During July and August the number of flights from Sydney to Queenstown will increase to five, two more than they were offering during last year’s ski season.

“Australia is a vital market for New Zealand’s $8.3 billion tourism industry and the extra flights will help attract even more travellers from across the Tasman.

“The government has invested heavily in marketing in Australia, with the well known What’s On campaign and the recently launched Green and Gold campaign proving successful with increasing numbers of Australians visiting New Zealand each year.

“Ensuring we have the flights to keep up with the demand in the increasingly popular ski season is very important both for local tourism in Queenstown and elsewhere, as well as for the tourism sector as a whole.

“The industry needs to increase the number of visitors in the off peak seasons to ensure greater utilisation of assets and facilities. This ties in with one of the goals in the New Zealand Tourism Strategy, for New Zealand’s tourism sector to be prosperous and attract ongoing investment,” he said.

“Increasing the number of flights means increasing the number of visitors. This can only be good news for the industry. I congratulate Air New Zealand on their forward thinking in this area,” said Mr O’Connor.