Extreme action slips on tourist list

LOW-KEY EXCITEMENT: A ride on the Earnslaw steamship in Queenstown may the sort of activity overseas visitors prefer to undertake.

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Tourism New Zealand is redefining how the country should market itself, saying travellers don't necessarily want high-action adventure tourism.

The government-funded body has surveyed the top 10 overseas traveller markets into New Zealand and has found that tourists want to try new things but want to feel relaxed, welcome, safe and comfortable.

Chief executive Kevin Bowler said the survey showed visitors were less interested in extreme adventure tourism activities, so there would be a change in the agency's promotional campaigns from later in the year.

This would be done within existing budgets.

The agency's annual budget for staff and marketing is nearly $100 million.

"Some of our emphasis on, say, the wilderness and maybe some of the adventure stuff in our communications – we might have been overplaying that a bit," Bowler said.

"This isn't to say they won't do a lot of the more active things, but what will motivate them are far more accessible activities. If I was thinking about Queenstown, I'd say to go on the Earnslaw [steamship trip] would be perfect."

Revised ad campaigns into target markets by the end of the year might not show New Zealand's wide open spaces, particularly if the target market were China where large numbers of people were considered the norm. "If you're living in Shanghai, you're not used to living by yourself and it might be that those images are seen as a little too inaccessible, and not really spelling out why it might be fun."

The top 10 markets for visitors are Australia, Britain, Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore, India, Germany, Canada and the United States.

Results from the survey were revealed at a New Zealand Inbound Tour Operators Council conference in Blenheim this week.

The focus over the past 10 years on the adventure-seeking traveller would now switch towards bigger-spending visitors who were already considering New Zealand as a destination.

"That's all about identifying the people we should be communicating with. We're calling them `active considerers'," Bowler said.

The focus was on converting these people into actual travellers to New Zealand by finding out what motivated them to travel.

Such potential travellers ranged from about "6 or 7 per cent of the population in somewhere like Germany right up to around 29 per cent in Australia".

Of that 29 per cent of Australians, about 17 per cent converted into travellers to New Zealand.

The survey found that when people travelled they wanted to feel happy and relaxed and were prepared to pre-book a structured holiday.

Young people still hankered for a feeling of adventure.

Mid-range hotels were the most preferred accommodation type, followed by B&Bs and luxury hotels or lodges.

The research was intended to find out which travellers were prepared to spend more in the New Zealand market, Bowler said. Australians considered New Zealand one of their preferred holiday destinations and were willing to spend at least A$1500 (NZ$1880) on a trip.

The Japanese placed less importance on getting an adrenaline rush, and individuals were prepared to spend 200,000 yen, or NZ$3280, on a trip.

"New Zealand's core brand strength is our natural environment, [but it] lags behind competitors in terms of being a place to come to experience new things, take part in events and festivals, and experience a vibrant urban atmosphere," Bowler said.

- © Fairfax NZ News