Hon Paula Bennett

Associate Minister of Tourism

25 August 2015

Partnerships push New Zealand’s profile abroad

Campaigns promoting New Zealand as an outstanding visitor destination reached more than 1.2 billion people globally last year, Associate Minister of Tourism Paula Bennett says.

Tourism New Zealand’s international PR and media efforts resulted in more than 22,000 stories about New Zealand generated over the year to June 2015.

“This is the equivalent of around 60 stories a day in our key target markets and has supported the achievement of three million annual arrivals, announced last week,” says Mrs Bennett.

Data out last week confirmed tourism’s increasing value to our economy with more than three million annual visitors, each spending on average $3,240 per visit – a 19 per cent increase on last year.
“Tourism makes a sizable contribution to New Zealand’s diverse, resilient economy, and marketing efforts are supporting the remarkable international growth we’re seeing from the sector. Around half of tourism expenditure is spent outside the three major cities,” Mrs Bennett says.

“The equivalent advertising value of the media generated was approximately $490 million, more than four times Tourism New Zealand’s total annual budget.

“This was achieved through the strategic leverage of key events like the ICC Cricket World Cup, the final Hobbit film, hosting over 260 media in New Zealand and some savvy media partnerships.

“Partnering with celebrity influencers like cricketer Stephen Fleming and Chinese reality star Huang Lei have proved hugely successful in promoting New Zealand.

“Print stories about New Zealand reached an estimated 638 million people while destination content in shows like China’s ‘Dad, Where are we going?’, Germany’s ‘Next Top Model’, Sarah Sechan’s talk show out of Indonesia and other television combined to reach an estimated 1.2 billion people.”

Key international markets targeted by Tourism New Zealand’s promotion efforts include Australia, China, the United Kingdom, the USA, Germany and Japan.
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