Tourism site to let users do talking | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

The tourism industry is going to be asked to help author the new Tourism New Zealand website - along with New Zealanders and travellers.

Speaking at the Eco Tourism New Zealand conference at Waiariki Institute of Technology yesterday, the organisation's general consumer marketing manager Catherine Bates outlined research into what people want from a holiday in New Zealand that was carried out to drive a new direction in marketing - letting other people help tell the story. "We want to move away from the publisher website model and into a more open model.

"We will still publish the factual content that has to be there but we are looking to industry, to New Zealanders, travel sellers and travellers to publish their content to the site."

By encouraging industry and the market to contribute, Bates said the information would be more relevant, more likely to come up during consumer searches and more likely to convert interested travellers into confirmed bookings.

The new-look site, that will be developing throughout the next couple of months, will also take people directly from their search into the part of the site they are most interested in, rather than to a home page and making them follow links to the information they were looking for.

Areas of the site will be dedicated to particular themes such as the section currently being developed on walking.

"We chose walking because it is something that most visitors to New Zealand participate in - whether it is a short city walk or a five-day hike."

It is part of a change in marketing focus, using consumer research to work out who to target, what they are looking for from a New Zealand holiday and where and how to reach them.

The aim is to focus more on targeting people who are already actively considering a visit to this country and converting them into arrivals, rather than mass marketing and hoping some of it sticks.

Careful monitoring will be done across the next three years to see how both the industry and the markets respond to this new approach - particularly in long-haul markets such as the United States, Germany and China.

Research showed people wanted a fun holiday that would allow them to relax and learn new things within New Zealand's landscape and culture - not high adventure and personal challenges.

This puts New Zealand up against much larger competitors, such as Australia, Italy, Ireland, Canada and the United States, with higher global profiles.

"When somebody is thinking about where they will take their next vacation, we have to work really hard to make them say 'Yes, that's where we will go'. We don't have that same mass media presence."

She said it was, therefore, vital that promotions were appropriately aimed at the right people and at what they wanted and this was causing a rethink of the 100 per cent Pure images. In the past, these have used "stunning landscape" images, but did not show people interacting with the landscapes, relaxing and having a good time in a safe and enjoyable environment.

"We have to ensure New Zealand raises its popularity - that we are seen and talked about.

"When someone says they are thinking about going to New Zealand, their peers need to say they know about it and think it's a good idea."