Visitor satisfaction with New Zealand remains high | infonews.co.nz New Zealand News

The release of Tourism New Zealand's annual Visitor Experience Monitor (VEM) provides key insights into what aspects of a New Zealand holiday satisfies our visitors and where change may be needed. Visitors to New Zealand rate their holiday experience 8.9 out of 10 in terms of satisfaction, according to the latest annual VEM statistics released this month. The VEM is a survey of around 4,500 international tourists who came here for a holiday or to visit friends and family. It asks how satisfied they were with different aspects of their holiday, and is used to assess behaviour pre, post and during travel within New Zealand. The research provides a benchmark for the industry from which to improve the experiences it offers visitors. The latest results reflect the views of visitors surveyed over the period July 2010 to June 2011. Tourism New Zealand's Chief Executive Kevin Bowler says the results are pretty much in line with recent years', and show that overall local tourist operators deliver to a high standard. "Almost all visitors (96 per cent) stated that they are likely or very likely to recommend New Zealand to others, while 97 per cent also said they had spoken of or written positively about New Zealand to others which reinforces how critical word of mouth is in marketing." But Mr. Bowler warned that there were also some slight decreases in satisfaction, and some lessons to be learned from the survey results. "While the overall satisfaction of all visitors with New Zealand remains pleasingly high, some decreases in satisfaction have shown up in certain areas - for example a decrease in satisfaction of 0.1 out of 10, in the areas of accommodation, food and beverage, safety and activities. These are relatively small but worth noting. "The decreases in satisfaction are related to the fact that international tourists are spending less time here and participating in fewer activities - and activities strongly influence satisfaction. "By participating in fewer activities our visitors are leaving New Zealand feeling slightly less satisfied," he says. This slight decrease in satisfaction was most notable with Australian tourists highlighting the importance of ensuring that New Zealand continues to attract the high-end Australian market that interacts and participates well within our tourism industry. The research surveys visitors from nine key markets - Australia, the UK, US, Japan, South Korea, China, Germany, South East Asia and the Youth market. The visitor experience is broken down into seven areas: accommodation; food and beverage; internal transport; activities; i-SITE visitor centres; environment; and safety.