Adventure company notes changing market trends

Press release from NZONE, The Ultimate Jump
21 May 2007

Adventure company notes changing market trends

Rotorua tandem skydive company and 2007 Tourism Award finalist* NZONE says phenomenal growth in its visitor numbers over the past year is due to capitalising on changing trends, and recognising continued growth in the independent travel sector.

NZONE general manager, Robynne Williams, said the sector had embraced the internet as a research and booking channel and, as a result, had moved towards direct pre-booking of holiday activities.

“Traditionally the psychology of the adventure market has been to plan nothing, arrive at a destination, then make activity decisions. This is definitely changing to a pre-planning focus,” said Ms Williams.

“The growth of the internet as a booking channel, coupled with the fact that people want to maximise their holiday time, means there is more planning before they leave home. We have some bookings as far out as 10 months in advance, which would have been unheard of a couple of years ago.”

As the company reflects on a year of growth, it attributes success to its ability to adapt to the changing market and also credits the local regional tourism organisation, Destination Rotorua, with the will to capitalise on the changes.

Destination Rotorua assistant general manager Ruth McIntyre says her organisation had changed primary focus from the group sector to the independent sector around two years ago.

“Rotorua is traditionally a huge group tour market, but the tour market has been in decline for a number of years now. Yet our visitor numbers from Australia, the UK and USA have increased at a rate that is higher than the national average. This is a result of our focus on the independent traveler markets.”

Over the past two years, Destination Rotorua has marketed the resort heavily in Western independent markets – namely Australia, the UK and USA.

“Destination Rotorua attended four consumer travel shows in Australia alone last year and has generally increased its activity in direct consumer promotion,” said Ms McIntyre.

“We’ve been tailoring our approach to the needs of independent travelers by promoting our adventure offering, in addition to our mainstays of Maori culture and geothermal sites,” she added.

And the results are in the figures produced by Statistics New Zealand which show that Rotorua length of stay has risen from 1.9 nights per visitor to 2.3 in the past twelve months.

NZONE says is has its own strategies in place to dovetail with the region’s international marketing approach. Those strategies include plenty of familiarisation jumps for international tourism buyers.

NZONE was a tourism award winner in 2002 and finalists in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. The company was the first tandem skydive operation in New Zealand and the first to have been awarded the Qualmark endorsement at both its Rotorua and Queenstown locations.

“This trend-setting sport continues to grow in popularity and tandem skydiving is rated amongst the top three adventure activities undertaken by international visitors to New Zealand,” said Ms Williams.

* Announced at TRENZ conference on May 21, in Rotorua.

ENDS

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