Return of charters from Japan shows further signs of recovery

Demand from regional Japan is on the up, with Air New Zealand confirming seven charter services and returned capacity on its Osaka and Tokyo routes over the summer season to meet the anticipated traveller volume.

Tourism New Zealand General Manager Asia Markets, Mark Frood, says the increased capacity supports his cautiously optimistic outlook for continued arrival growth.

"The summer season charter programme shows that demand from regional Japan for destination New Zealand is recovering. There is a sense of growing optimism in the outbound tourism market and the increased capacity has been warmly welcomed by the Japanese tourism industry," he says.

Between 25 January and 14 March Air New Zealand will operate a weekly charter service into Auckland from Nagoya, Fukuoka and Kagoshima. This capacity is in addition to Air New Zealand's existing three direct services each week between Tokyo and Christchurch and then on to Auckland, along with three services a week between Tokyo and Auckland and four between Osaka and Auckland.

Mr Frood says that Japan has had some unique challenges over the last 12 months. "Arrivals and general traffic growth has been sluggish following the post earthquake and tsunami recovery, which was then further affected by the large segment of senior travellers who chose to postpone their travel to New Zealand during the Rugby World Cup 2011 to avoid the large sporting event.

"However, increased capacity, competitive deals and increased activity in Tourism New Zealand's PR, trade and campaign areas, and joint venture activity with Air New Zealand and our other trade and travel partners, has meant we have started to see pick-up in recent months in long haul travel from Japan to New Zealand."

Air New Zealand General Manager Japan Ed Overy says the seven charters are selling well, indicating a continued appetite from Japanese tourists for a taste of a New Zealand summer.

"Together with Tourism New Zealand, we have been working hard to stimulate passenger growth from this important tourism market. While this summer's charter flights are less than the 13 we ran last summer, they are more than we had the year before that, and reflect the renewed optimism we are seeing in the outbound market from Japan."

Alongside its newly launched summer campaign, Tourism New Zealand is actively supporting the charter programme with retail agent training, agent familiarisation visits and charter consumer seminars.

A series of joint promotional activities with Air New Zealand have also been underway since early November, driving travellers to newzealand.com for the latest special offers.