Kiwis roll out welcome carpet for India
Mischa Mannix- Opie, Regional Manager, South & South-east Asia at Tourism New Zealand, talks about how the tourism board is helping to grow the travel trade’s capability in selling New Zealand by overhauling the Kiwi Specialist retail training programme.
PEDEN DOMA BHUTIA lucrative as a destination for Indian families. Indian billionaires also prefer exclusive leisure destinations for holidaying, and among overseas destinations, New Zealand is touted as a favourite.
Our total arrivals from India for the year ending January 2013 were 29,920 (+5.7 per cent). Holiday arrival figures for the year ending January 2013 were 15,024 (+15.8 per cent) so we are pleased with our results to date. The October-to December visitor arrival (our traditional honeymoon visitation period) now exceeds the visitor arrivals volume of the April-June period, which reinforces that our focus on this segment is the right approach for Tourism New Zealand. We are excited about the opportunities for future growth in the year ahead.
Our forecast for the India market are still being developed as we enter a new three-year marketing plan cycle. However, Tourism New Zealand will remain committed to growing the Indian inbound market to New Zealand. Partnerships with travel trade and airlines will continue to be part of Tourism New Zealand’s ongoing strategy in India. We will also continue our marketing efforts focusing on the honeymoon, family and business events sectors. These activities will be integrated across a range of marketing channels, including advertising, promotional, public relations and travel trade and airline partnership.
Tourism New Zealand’s three main pillars of marketing activity in India are marketing campaign partnerships, public relations and hosting international media and business development with travel agents. Besides these, special activities like the release of The Hobbit Trilogy and the ‘ 100% Middle Earth’ campaign will provide us with an additional marketing platform to arouse interest among Indians in visiting New Zealand.
Tourism New Zealand works with a range of commercial partners in the India market. We have significant partnerships with Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines where we work together in joint advertising campaigns. We also work with a range of travel agent partners in joint marketing campaigns. Currently we have live campaigns with Thomas Cook, Make My Trip, eezego1.com and work with other travel agent partners through the year.
Our target audiences in India are people who are not just aware of New Zealand, but are actively considering New Zealand as one of their preferred holiday destinations. Based on Tourism New Zealand’s research there are approximately over 21 million people in India who fall into this category Holiday, visiting friends and relatives, and business are the three main travel clusters from India. Although the luxury travel market in India is still in a nascent stage, it is worth US$4.6 billion and is growing at an impressive rate of 25 to 30% annually (AT Kearney). This coupled with the rise in spending power of Indians as well as eagerness to explore new places makes the future appear pretty bright for an increase in the number of Indian travellers exploring and experiencing the different offerings of New Zealand.
Tourism New Zealand is growing the travel trade’s capability in selling New Zealand by overhauling the Kiwi Specialist retail training programme and introducing