Coach scenery hits the road

Scenes of Taranaki are now visible on most New Zealand roads thanks to the initiative of a local family business.

Blair Withers of Withers Coachlines approached Venture Taranaki with the offer to have photos of Taranaki's beaches, bush, ski slopes and surf placed on both sides of the company's new Volvo tour coach.

The 49-seater "mobile billboard" would be seen everywhere the coach went, he said. "We're [travelling] all over the place, so why not promote Taranaki? People always ask me where I'm from, now I've got the pictures to show them. If the region benefits, then the visitor industry benefits, and as a result the company stands to benefit. It's win-win."

Venture Taranaki marketing manager Vicki Fairley said the best images were chosen from a range of promotional photos that covered all aspects of the region and its people.

"It was a long and varied process, mostly a lot of the images are what we are using in our Taranaki tourism library."

The placement of the photos on the sides of the bus gave the effect of moving from the beach, inland to Mt Taranaki.

The billboard idea grew from Venture Taranaki's High Impact Tourism programme – aimed at boosting the region's tourism businesses – which Mr Withers participated in.

He plans to photograph the coach with well-known Taranaki scenes parked alongside other New Zealand landmarks.

- © Fairfax NZ News