Tourism Minister meeting with key industry stakeholders in Singapore

Tourism Minister Mark Burton is meeting today with leaders of Singapore’s main travel agencies and airlines, as well as key representatives of Air New Zealand, Quantas, and Tourism New Zealand.

The group will be discussing the current state of the New Zealand tourism sector and industry strategies for the future.

Mark Burton stressed the importance of Singapore as a high-value tourism market.

“A recent survey of our target visitors in Singapore showed that they see New Zealand as a desirable destination, and an ideal place to go to be refreshed and recharged. Nearly half of the survey respondents have read, seen, or heard something about New Zealand in the last four weeks, and ten per cent indicated that they plan to visit New Zealand for their next holiday—an absolutely outstanding result.

“Many Singaporeans are looking for the kind of holiday that New Zealand can provide, and many fit the profile of our ideal visitor—the Interactive Traveller. These guests tend to be well educated, travel internationally on a regular basis, and tend to have relatively high levels of discretionary income. They often go to the cinema, are high users of technology, read newspapers daily, and watch educational television programming.

“April 2004 showed excellent growth in guest arrivals from Singapore, with a 31 per cent increase on the previous year. This is excellent news, and proof positive of the huge support New Zealand gets from the Singaporean travel industry. I’m please to have the chance to meet these key stakeholders, to discuss plans and strategies for an even stronger New Zealand/Singapore market in the future.”

Mark Burton will also meet with international media representatives from the BBC, CNBC, and Straits Times, as well as officially close the Lord of the Rings exhibition, currently showing at the Singapore Science Centre.

He will return to New Zealand 10 June, following a number of Defence commitments in Singapore.

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