New Zealand – Tourism New Zealand, the organization tasked to promote the country’s tourism around the world, has recently launched a new campaign targeted at its regional neighbor – Australia – to encourage the country’s locals who happen to be the country’s largest former international visitor market, to come explore and renew their wanderlust towards New Zealand.
Done in partnership with creative agency Special Group Australia, the campaign titled ‘Stop Dreaming about New Zealand and Go’ takes a quirky turn with a depiction of an Australian dreaming about New Zealand from his sleep, and is then is then taken through a range of the country’s popular attractions including National Parks and even stargazing with a surreal giant Kiwi.
According to research by Tourism New Zealand, about 77% of Australians are actively considering traveling to the country on holiday, followed by 27% who want to visit their family, with 15% to visit friends.
Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive René de Monchy shared that despite record numbers of Kiwis ‘doing something new’ and traveling domestically, there is an estimated $12.9B annual gap from the loss of international visitors, and the return of Australian visitors is projected to help reduce this gap with both domestic tourists and international visits making up 70% the pre-COVID visitor market.
“The campaign is designed to tap into people’s renewed desire to explore and showcases New Zealand’s natural environment, experiences, and the warm welcome of our people. We are seeing longer itineraries being booked by Australians which helps support travel to more remote locations within New Zealand,” said Monchy.
According to Ann Lockhart, the interim chief executive of Destination Queenstown, Australia is likewise a hugely important visitor market for Queenstown, particularly over winter when Australian visitors previously made up around 50% of all of our international visits.
“The ability to welcome them here is a huge boost for Queenstown and we are delighted the trans-Tasman bubble is open and our tourism operators are open and ready to welcome our Australian friends back,” said Lockhart.
In line with the campaign, Tourism New Zealand has also released a toolkit for interested partners who want to adopt and integrate with the campaign. The kit provides an overview of the campaign, the creative assets, and details on how partners can get involved through their own channels. The kit is available for download through its website.
