DRMumbai: Total visitor arrivals from India to New Zealand have doubled (from 33,000 to 66,000) in the past four years, with more Indians visiting the country than ever before. In recognition of this incredible growth and increased interest in the Indian market from New Zealand tourism operators, Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) expanded its annual travel trade event, Kiwi Link India, this year.
The new format saw the organisation hosting a record 40 New Zealand operators and Immigration New Zealand (INZ) along with three airlines – Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, and Thai Airways, and 72 Indian delegates from 49 travel companies in Mumbai on July 9-10, followed by frontline training in Bengaluru and New Delhi on July 12 and 13, respectively.
Recently, TNZ released four videos under ‘Welcoming Journeys’. This communications exercise is very much within the ‘100% PURE New Zealand’ brand campaign, which continues to be the country’s longest running campaign. Next year the campaign turns 20.
Steven Dixon, Regional Manager, South and South-East Asia, TNZ, says, “It is an incredibly successful campaign but the biggest challenge is to ensure that it evolves over time. Every two years we tweak the campaign, and this year we have ‘Welcoming Journeys’.”
TNZ is evolving the country’s destination brand to capture New Zealand’s unique people and culture alongside landscapes and scenery. The first phase of this brand evolution work has taken shape in the new video content which was launched in India in July and is rolling out globally now. The new videos feature kiwis from each region welcoming, guiding and sharing their home with international visitors.
“We find that there is a remarkable connection between international visitors and our local people. So we created content that highlights the uniqueness of our people and these links. People and place are our focus. We created four videos which highlight this. In the local Māori language, the welcoming experience is called manaakitanga.”
The content aims to encourage visitors to incorporate the regions into their itineraries and to visit in spring and autumn – spreading visitation across the country and the year. The regions showcased are – Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Napier, Rotorua, Christchurch, Marlborough, and Milford Sound. Siddharth Malhotra was the brand ambassador last year. Now, TNZ is looking at a major broadcast campaign in India.
Kiwi Link 2018 travelled to three cities with a mammoth delegation, a sign of Tourism New Zealand’s growing interest in india
FTAs have doubled in the last four years to 66,000 from India. TNZ expects to see double-digit growth of 20 per cent YoY, mostly holiday travellers. The government has predicted 1, 00,000 arrivals by 2023 from India. India is among the top 10 markets; one of the fastest growing markets neck-to-neck with Indonesia and Philippines.
Recently, INZ signed up preferred partners like Cox & Kings and Thomas Cook bringing down the visa processing time from 15 days to just 3 for Indian travellers. Now, getting a visa to NZ is relatively easy and quite affordable.
“In India, the market is emerging but not mature enough to look at promoting niche segments like film tourism or golf. Indians want to do everything in NZ – beaches, adventure, food, culture. We see that FITs and Self-Drive Holiday customers are increasing over the years. Honeymooners have always preferred NZ and this segment continues to grow. A lot of multi-generational families are also visiting. Then, food & wine holidays are also getting popular as many NZ wines are now available in India,” says Dixon.
The country is shelling out a lot of money in India to promote travel during April-June months (autumn), which is off-season in NZ. Under the NZ Specialist Programme, over 120 travel partners across India have been trained and certified.
The government is set to roll out a Tourist Tax in 2019 to fund infrastructure and environment. However, this has created criticism saying NZ will become expensive.
“It is still up for review. Currently, the government is asking for feedback from the trade. But it’s important that NZ remains competitive as a destination in terms of value and we are competitive even with the tax. As we see more arrivals, it’s important we give back to the economy to maintain infrastructure and environment and to ensure that tourism remains sustainable in the future.”
