Latest News from Tourism New Zealand

It has been a challenging year for tourism worldwide, with an expected 5 per cent decline in outbound travel globally. With visitor arrivals down just 0.6 per cent to 30 November 2009, New Zealand is holding its own.

While Australia has performed strongly, arrivals have been down from many of New Zealand's key long-haul markets. Reversing this trend will be a priority for Tourism New Zealand in 2010, as it looks to raise awareness of New Zealand, build the brand and recover visitor arrivals, while exploring new opportunities.

Read Acting Chief Executive Tim Hunter's update on our plans for 2010

International visitor arrivals figures out yesterday confirmed it has been a slow start to the peak season for the tourism industry.

Statistics New Zealand figures for the month of November show visitor arrivals were up just 0.3 per cent compared with the same month last year, to 219,939 arrivals.

Figures indicate that New Zealand's long-haul markets are still feeling the pinch of recession, and this means arrivals are likely to remain subdued over the first part of the summer. However, Tourism New Zealand expects to see improvements in arrivals from some long-haul markets in the first quarter of 2010.

Read the visitor arrivals media release

International Visitor Arrivals November 2009:

• Australia - 84,502, up 9.5%
• UK - 24,518, down 0.9%
• USA - 18,768, down 11.3%
• China - 11,063, down 3.5 %
• Japan - 8,027, down 1.9%
• Germany - 8,096, up 2.5%
• South Korea - 4,370, down 12.5%
• Canada - 4,922, down 14.9%

A competition offering budding film-makers their ‘Big Break’ is gaining momentum, with thousands of people viewing and voting for entries online.

Close to 50 entries have already been received through the competition’s website and top videos viewed online around 5,000 times each.

The competition is giving five film-makers the chance to travel to New Zealand and get their work in front of legendary director Peter Jackson. The finalists will be flown to New Zealand to make their own three-minute films on location, with the help of The Lord of the Rings producer Barrie Osborne and Wellington’s Park Road Post Production facility.

Read the full story online

View entries and vote for your favourites!
www.your-big-break.com

i-SITE New Zealand kicks off nationwide radio advertising on Boxing Day, with spots featuring on Classic Hits and ZM radio stations across the country.

The advertising is the next phase of the Network's 'Start with i-SITE' marketing campaign, which launched in November. The campaign is designed to raise awareness of i-SITE centres among domestic travellers, by sharing the local travel knowledge of i-SITE's 600 staff nationwide.

i-SITE people feature in the ads, sharing the 'best kept secrets' from their local regions. Pictured: Tess Hellebrekers from Wanaka i-SITE at the recording studio.

Want to know what's on, what's hot and New Zealand's best kept secrets? Check out www.i-SITE.org.nz before you head away on holiday this summer.

From 2010 Tourism New Zealand is extending the Explore New Zealand discount programme to Air New Zealand's in-flight concierge team. Explore is a programme offering discounted New Zealand travel experiences to visiting travel trade representatives and media.

Air New Zealand concierges are inflight travel specialists on long-haul flights that assist passengers with their New Zealand travel plans. They are seperate to regular onboard crew.

Extending the 'Explore' programme to the concierge team will help them offer a more comprehensive information service to passengers, based on their own domestic travel experiences. Around 40 concierges are currently based in Auckland and 14 in London.

Over 600 travel agents and media from New Zealand's inbound travel markets are accredited to Explore each year and 500 New Zealand tourism operators offer discounts through it. Operators will be invited to participate in the next edition of Explore in mid-2010.

For more on Explore visit Tourism New Zealand's travel sellers' website

Find out more about Air New Zealand's concierge programme

Tourism New Zealand would like to wish you all a happy and safe Christmas. Thank you for your support in 2009 and best wishes for the year ahead.

While it's been a challenging year for the industry, there have also been plenty of successes. View our Christmas card to see what we've been up to.

Meri Kirihimete