Tourism

Tourism NZ turns NZ Green & Gold

New ‘What’s On’ 100% Pure New Zealand television advertisements launched in Australia last weekend, playing on our flora’s autumn colours, telling Australians that we have painted New Zealand green and gold ‘especially for you’.

"The ‘What’s On’ campaign has worked really well for us so far," says George Hickton, Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive. "We know that many Australians have an outdated view of what New Zealand has to offer. They are not aware of the differences in the seasons, our festivals and events - that’s what we are aiming to do - give them more reasons to come, at more times of the year."

"We were delighted with the results of the spring campaign," says Mr Hickton. "The number of Australians visiting our country keeps growing, topping the 900,000 mark last year. For our largest and probably our most mature tourism market, this is an impressive result."

There are a series of advertisements - the Green and Gold ad, plus various takes on the ‘What’s On’ theme. For the first time there is an advertisement featuring the South Island regions of Christchurch and Canterbury, Dunedin and Queenstown. Wellington has an advertisement for the second time, and Auckland has also joined the campaign. Another advertisement is directed at potential skiers from Australia.

"We are very pleased that we have increasing numbers of regions coming on board for this campaign," says Mr Hickton, "this is giving the campaign the variety of activity and attractions we need to give the campaign momentum."

There are also major PR results being revealed to coincide with the campaign, including coverage of New Zealand on television programmes such as: Getaway (1.2 million viewership); Surfing the Menu (up to 500,000 viewers) and The Biggest Loser (up to 1.9 million viewers). A 32-page New Zealand supplement in the News Ltd Sunday papers has also been produced and inserted into a total of 2.5 million newspapers.