Australian Funding Keeps Visitor Numbers Up

A $2.5 million dollar funding boost to New Zealand’s marketing in Australia will allow Tourism New Zealand to keep New Zealand’s profile high in this important market over the coming months.

Statistics New Zealand figures out last week showed total arrivals for February were down 8.5 per cent compared with the same month last year, with all of New Zealand’s key markets declining, except Australia.

Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive George Hickton says the results are not surprising. "Feedback we have been getting from key industry players is that for most, visitor numbers and yield during February were down on last year."

George Hickton says this growth out of Australia reinforces the Government’s decision to boost Tourism New Zealand funding to allow continued marketing in Australia over summer. This has helped keep Australian visitor arrivals up by 2.5 per cent in February, while arrivals fell from almost all of our other key tourism markets.

Incorrect media coverage referred to the funding as a bail-out by Government. However, Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive George Hickton says it is additional funding, which will enable New Zealand to market in Australia for a much longer period of the autumn and winter.

"Australia remains our banker market as the long-haul markets cut back on travel. It is the one market where we see an opportunity for growth in the current climate.

"We’ve been talking with the Government since December about Australia being our best bet for keeping visitor arrivals up over winter. This additional funding will allow us to continue running our campaign after April."

This year will be the first time that Tourism New Zealand has run its ‘What’s On’ campaign for a full year. The campaign has previously focused on promoting travel to New Zealand during the shoulder seasons of spring and autumn.

As well as Australia Tourism New Zealand has been running campaigns in the US, UK and China in an effort to attract a larger market share of those who are still travelling.

Visitor arrivals from China were down by 22 per cent to 12,000 in February, though part of this drop may be attributed to the fact that Chinese New Year fell in January (which saw visitor arrivals up 32%) rather than February this year.

It seems that declining group travel is a major contributor to the decreases in some of New Zealand’s other main markets.

Markets like the US (down 18 per cent), Japan (down 14 per cent) and Korea (down almost 30 per cent), which are traditionally dependent on group bookings, all had major decreases in February.

"Anecdotally it seems that group bookings are being hit hardest, with some operators reporting up to a 50 per cent decrease in this market," says George Hickton. "However, in many cases this has been offset by independent and domestic travellers. The backpacker market is also holding up well."

Consumers from the US, UK and Australia are all becoming more price conscious as the recession deepens and many are looking for last-minute deals. As a consequence booking times are getting shorter and more people are booking direct.

"This is particularly common out of Australia," say George Hickton, "but some operators are reporting that sometimes even our long-haul markets like the UK and Europe are booking very close to the time that they arrive."

International Visitor Arrivals February 2009:

• Australia 87,538 up 2.5%
• UK 42,481 down 15.1%
• USA 25,553 down 17.9%
• Canada 7,498 down 17.5%
• China 12,075 down 21.8 %
• Korea 5,060 down 28.6%
• Japan 9,890 down 14.3%

>Read the Prime Minister’s media release: Tourism Gets Urgent $2.5 Million Boost to Lure Aussies

>Read Tourism New Zealand’s media release: Australian Funding to Boost Key Tourism Market

>Read more about Australia in the Australia Market Guide