ITC Industry News Bulletin #19

In this week’s industry news, New Zealand’s tourism outlook continues to go from strength to strength, we reflect on a busy winter season and much more.

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TIA: “It’s an exciting time to be in tourism”

The Tourism Industry Association (TIA) published another bright outlook regarding New Zealand’s booming tourism sector late last week, with Chairman Grant Lilly commenting “it’s an exciting time to be in tourism”. New Zealand is on track to achieve its Tourism 2025 goals and there’s no doubt the future is looking excellent.

However, Mr Lilly did acknowledge a couple of key challenges, such as attracting the right talent to the industry and ensuring businesses can cope with fast growth.

“The speed of growth is certainly creating some challenges for us, amongst them the persistent issues of seasonality, lack of regional dispersal, insufficient infrastructure investment and the growing demand for people and skills,” Mr Lilly said.

Mr Lilly added that the demand for trained tourism workers is especially important, as “many sectors are striving to attract more people and skills, so this is not a problem that is unique to tourism […] it does mean we have plenty of competition for the best and the brightest.”

The Chairman’s comments are a further reminder of the importance of quality tourism courses and training in New Zealand.

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ITC Industry News Bulletin #18

In this week’s airline, travel and tourism news, i-SITEs around New Zealand are celebrated, the TIA supports the construction of a new hotel on Auckland’s waterfront, the Government opens a new round of tourism funding, and much, much more.

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Opportunities for tourism industry investment

The Tourism Industry Association (TIA) is pleased that a new luxury hotel is being constructed on Auckland’s waterfront.

According to TIA chief executive Chris Roberts, projects like the Park Hyatt development are exactly the type of investments New Zealand needs to stay on track to achieve its Tourism 2025 goals.

“To meet the goals of Tourism 2025, it is essential that we encourage investment to improve the quality of current infrastructure to meet rising visitor expectations, as well as creating a positive environment for investment in new facilities,” Mr Roberts said in a statement.

He added that new investment projects also create jobs, boost local economies and contribute to “building vibrant communities to live, work and play”.

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ITC Industry News Bulletin #17

In this week’s airline, travel and tourism news: Queenstown NZ launches a new marketing campaign, Tourism New Zealand reports increased numbers of business visitors, cruise season looks to boom over summer and much, much more.

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New campaign encourages a ‘sick day-stow away’ to Queenstown

Queenstown NZ has launched a brilliant new tongue-in-cheek marketing campaign designed to convince Australians to ‘pull a sickie’ and visit the city for a long weekend. This video perfectly captures the appeal of Queenstown in a fun and humorous way, which is bound to capture the attention of our friends across the ditch.

The clip is fronted by Australian comedian Dan Ilic, who highlights that the video is meant to be taken as a joke (sickies not condoned!).

“The team at Destination Queenstown felt they might get in trouble if they were to teach the entire Australian workforce how to skip work and escape to the snow,” Dan said. “As a comedian, they thought I might get away with it.”

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ITC Industry News Bulletin #15

In this week’s airline, travel and tourism news, New Zealand surpasses 3 million annual overseas visitors, new Easter Sunday trading laws announced, Air NZ reports record growth and much more.

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Overseas visitors hit 3 million milestone

The number of overseas visitors to New Zealand surpassed 3 million for the first time ever late last week, Statistics New Zealand revealed. From July 2014 to July 2015, a record-breaking 3,002,982 visitors entered the country – a 7 per cent increase from the year before.

Statistics New Zealand population statistics senior manager Vina Callum said increased arrivals from markets such as Australia and China helped achieve this important milestone.

For more coverage about this milestone, and how it relates to the Tourism 2025 goals, see these statements from the Tourism Industry Association and Tourism New Zealand.

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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 #12

In the first ITC Industry News Bulletin for August, hotels across New Zealand are performing exceptionally well, cycling holidays are taking off and much more.

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Stellar year for NZ hotels

Hotels across New Zealand are performing exceptionally well according to new data released by the Tourism Industry Association (TIA). The research was based on all TIA-member hotels, of which there are nearly 140 around the country. The average occupancy in these hotels during 2014 was 75.7%, while the average daily rate was $144.

“Almost every region saw record results last year, with the exception of Christchurch where a significant recovery in the supply of available rooms due to hotel openings and re-openings has affected the occupancy statistics,” TIA chief executive Chris Roberts said in a statement.

“These positive trends have continued in 2015 and as a result, we are seeing reinvestment with a number of hotels undergoing refurbishment. And investors are responding to demand with more hotel developments around the country that we have seen for quite some time,” he added.

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ITC Industry News Bulletin #11

This week the proposed ‘Travel Tax’ has been dominating the headlines. Read on for the TIA’s latest statement on the topic.

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Tourism New Zealand collaborates with Facebook in new marketing campaign

“One couple, one campervan, one unforgettable road trip around New Zealand.” This is the tagline for a new social media campaign launched by Tourism New Zealand, in collaboration with Facebook.

Called ‘The Kombi Diaries’, this exciting new campaign is based around five short videos, filmed by a couple travelling New Zealand in – you guessed it – a Kombi van. These films are cute, clever and – most importantly – show off some of New Zealand’s most beautiful natural landscapes. Be sure to keep an eye out for them on social media!
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ITC Industry News Bulletin #7

In this week’s Industry News Bulletin, New Zealand has been named one of the most peaceful countries in the world – yet another great selling point for the tourism industry

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NZ makes top 5 peaceful countries

New Zealand is the fourth most peaceful country in the world, according to the latest Global Peace Index by the Institute for Economics & Peace. This places us just behind Iceland, Denmark and Austria. Yet another reason why New Zealand is such a fantastic tourism destination! (more…)

ITC Industry News Bulletin #6

In this week’s Industry News Bulletin, autumn arrivals continue to drive positive growth, Rotorua tourism industry sees unusually busy winter and Qatar Airlines is once again named Airline of the Year

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 Autumn arrivals continue to drive positive growth

2015 is shaping up to be an amazing year for the tourism industry, with Tourism New Zealand reporting ‘record-setting’ holiday arrivals in autumn. In May alone total holiday arrivals were up by 16.5 per cent. Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler said the latest data “brings us even closer to an annual arrivals figure of three million”.  (more…)

ITC Industry News Bulletin #1

In this week’s Industry Bulletin tourism jobs are in high demand, Tourism NZ launches a new campaign and TRENZ opens in Rotorua, plus many more interesting stories

Welcome to the first edition of the ITC Industry News Bulletin, a weekly round-up of the latest news from the airline, travel and tourism industries.

You can read more about the strategy behind the Industry News Bulletin here.

TOP STORIES

Tourism workforce set to grow almost 40%

The New Zealand tourism industry will need as many as 36,000 more full-time workers by 2025, according to research released by the Tourism Industry Association (TIA) this week.

“TIA is working with the tourism industry to develop a People & Skills Strategy which looks at how to attract more people to work in the tourism industry in the short, medium and long term. This work is progressing well and we expect to launch it publicly later this year,” TIA Chief Executive Chris Roberts said in a media release. (more…)