ITC Industry News Bulletin #44

In this week’s airline, travel and tourism news, the South Island credits Instagram with attracting more visitors to its shores in 2015, several tourism operators challenge Easter trading laws and much more.

TOP STORIES

New Zealand’s South Island Sees Tourism Boom Thanks to Instagram Photos Like These

The South Island reported record visitor growth in 2015, far exceeding the North Island – and many tourism leaders believe this could be thanks to Instagram.

Lake Wanaka Tourism general manager James Helmore told stuff.co.nz that they invested a lot of time into boosting Wanaka’s Instagram presence last year.

“We’ve done everything from Insta-meets, when you get a whole lot of people coming together to take photos to put on Instagram, to hosting influencers from around the world,” says James.

The link between Instagram and the South Island’s tourism growth caught the attention of international media, with Conde Nast Traveller covering the story. Click the ‘read more’ button below to read Conde Nast’s full coverage and see some of 2015’s most beautiful South Island Instagram pics.

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ITC Industry News Bulletin #30

Welcome to the 30th edition of the ITC Industry News Bulletin! In this week’s airline, travel and tourism news, NZ’s top 10 Instagrammed locations are named, a new report shines a light on the current state of the industry and much more.

TOP STORIES

New Zealand’s ten most Instagrammed locations revealed

Waiheke Island is New Zealand’s ‘most Instagrammed’ location, it was revealed earlier this week. The popular holiday destination secured the top spot ahead of several other beautiful places – see the full list below.

1. Waiheke Island
2. Mount Maunganui
3. Hobbiton Movie Set
4. Sky Tower
5. Takapuna Beach
6. Lake Tekapo
7. Piha Beach
8. Wanaka Lakefront
9. Museum of Te Papa Tongarewa
10. Skyline Queenstown

The list was compiled based on how many pictures were geo-tagged in each location.

Director of marketing at Tourism New Zealand, Andrew Fraser, told The Bay of Plenty Times that there has been an increase of activity on Instagram recently.

“We can see through the growth of the @PureNewZealand Instagram account and the popularity of the #NZMustDo campaign that both visitors and New Zealanders alike are turning to Instagram to share their New Zealand experiences,” Mr Fraser said.

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