The government of New Zealand is set to put more money into promoting its tourism industry. The plan is to create a higher level of income and create more jobs for the locals. The number of visitors to New Zealand is constant, yet they tend not to spend enough.
New Zealand has traditionally been a solid brand name in marketing. It has never been associated with political turmoil or internal problems. Instead it evokes the images of sport, untouched natural beauty, wealth and wilderness with an exotic twist.
However, sales of New Zealand rugby shirts and clothing with a kiwi label on it hardly help the tourism industry of the country itself. Not only does New Zealand need to attract more punters, yet it needs to get them to spend more.
The general aim for this year is to get an extra 400.000 visitors to New Zealand and to increase their average spend of $2500 per head. Most visitors come from Australia, USA, China and Germany. There is also an increasing amount of Western Europeans visiting New Zealand to trace their family history.
Like in many cases, there are advantages and disadvantages to visiting New Zealand. The big disadvantage is the distance. Indeed, there is nowhere further away from the richer countries of Western Europe and the USA is hardly round the corner.
To help achieve such aims, the New Zealand government has decided to invest in funding a hike, to the value of $30 million. Indeed, a budget of $99 million has been mooted to help the country’s cause in terms of tourism in 2010 and 2011. The government, naturally, will be expecting a huge return on such an investment.