Media Release
10 November 2005

Wellington Bucks the National Trend

The Ministry of Tourism released statistics on domestic tourism today showing that Wellington is bucking the national trend. According to the Ministry of Tourism’s Domestic Travel Survey, domestic travel in New Zealand in the year ending December 2004 was down 8.5%. Wellington, however, saw an increase of 11.9%.

Bruce Bassett, Research Manager for the Ministry of Tourism, commented that the information from the Domestic Travel Survey confirms feedback from the tourism industry that domestic tourism has slowed down.

Positively Wellington Tourism, however, recognised this trend 12 months ago and radically changed domestic campaigns to reflect it. Because of these changes, Wellington has out-performed the national average.

“We picked up this trend a long time ago and we’ve already reacted to it,” says Tim Cossar, CEO of Positively Wellington Tourism. “The Ministry of Tourism’s Domestic Travel Survey provides valuable information, but the national data is already 11 months old. However, we are pleased to see this data confirms the actions we took 12 months ago.”

Positively Wellington Tourism has several other monitors in place that help it track trends within the sector.

“Because we have other monitors in place, we are able to react more quickly to market trends. When we combine our monitors with other data, we have a more comprehensive understanding of current trends and we are able to adjust our marketing accordingly,” Tim says.

As a result, Wellington is already recording positive results. Positively Wellington Tourism’s Hotel Monitor continues to indicate that the Wellington market is performing well relative to the national market.

“Positively Wellington Tourism continues to lead New Zealand with its domestic marketing programme. We view the domestic market as vital to our future,” Tim says.

“We are currently advocating for better-quality domestic monitoring, and we have co-led the development of the new Regional Visitor Satisfaction Survey. This is not a time to be complacent. The domestic market is under severe pressure and we believe more timely national-level data is required to allow regions to develop more effective marketing programmes.”

ENDS

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