ITC Industry News Bulletin #24

In this week’s industry news, tourism comes closer to toppling dairy as NZ’s top export earner and Waiheke Island is voted as one of the world’s must-visit destinations for 2016, plus much more.

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Waiheke Island world’s fifth best region: Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet has named Waiheke Island as the fifth best place to visit in 2016 – an accolade that is expected to attract thousands of tourists to the island’s beautiful shores.

According to Lonely Planet’s marketing director, Chris Zeiher, Waiheke was chosen for its gorgeous natural beauty and abundance of tourism activities.

The island is “a utopia of secret coves, beautiful beaches, rolling vineyards, luxury lodges and bohemian sensibilities,” Mr Zeiher said in a statement announcing the list.

“In 2016 Waiheke Island is welcoming the world to sample from its abundant offerings and inviting all visitors to fall under its spell,” he added.

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ITC Industry News Bulletin #14

In this week’s airline, travel and tourism news: Air New Zealand’s safety video goes viral, beautiful South Island landscapes attract global attention, regional centres continue to report tourism growth, and more.

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Air New Zealand Men in Black Safety Defenders a crowd pleaser

Last week Air New Zealand released a brilliant new safety video, ‘Men in Black Safety Defenders’, featuring several high profile All Blacks, coach Steve Hansen and singer Stan Walker. To say this video went viral would be an understatement; more than 12.9 million online views were recorded in its first four days, and the video has been shared by major global news outlets including Time.com and The Telegraph.

“It’s been fantastic seeing the reaction to Men in Black Safety Defenders both online and from the feedback we’ve received from customers,” says Jodi Williams, Air New Zealand Head of Global Development.

“We have been a longstanding supporter of the All Blacks and New Zealand Rugby and it’s been great for us to be able to release this latest video and show our support for the team.”

Way to go Air New Zealand!

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ITC Industry News Bulletin #8

Once again, this week’s tourism news is incredibly positive, even as we head into the winter months.

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New Zealand favourite film destination

According to a study by the HBO television network (Game of Thrones, The Wire, etc.), New Zealand is the most popular film destination in the world. This is largely thanks to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler said ‘film tourism’ continues to be a strong aspect of New Zealand’s marketing strategy.

“We have continuing interest from film makers wanting to use New Zealand as their backdrop and we are confident our role of film tourism is going to keep us top of mind for those people wanting to live the dream and visit their favourite film locations,” Mr Bowler said in a statement.

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