BROCHURES STILL THRIVE IN DIGITAL AGE

IN TODAY’S digital age, you’d be forgiven for assuming that printed tourism brochures are a thing of the past. But one New Zealand-based brochure distribution company can prove otherwise.

VisitorPoint is New Zealand’s only national distributor of tourism information, having distributed brochures here for more than 30 years. Formerly known as Jasons, in December 2013 the company was bought by Kiwi businessman Geoff Spong of Bennetts Group, who in June 2015 ceased publishing to concentrate on its core business of distribution.

It fully rebranded as VisitorPoint in early 2016 and invested heavily in systems, a new mobile data collection app and a brand-new website and trade website.

VisitorPoint has 30 staff including 19 high-profile merchandisers who are constantly on the road.

No other business in New Zealand does what it does, especially with its speciality focus on the travel and tourism sector and its contract warehousing with data collection, dispatch and extensive reporting services offered to a wide range of businesses.

And the company is growing, with more staff in the pipeline and more than 10.5 million brochures distributed annually. And even in this digital age, more than 38 percent of visitors use travel brochures as a primary source of information in New Zealand.

As BDM Jenni Powell says, it’s a “silently awesome” company that’s been growing and innovating somewhat under the business radar.

“With 36 circuits plus an extensive online trade network, clients can ‘pick and mix’ where they want to be distributed, making it easy for tourists to find the information they need.

“We have over 700 titles listed on our trade website, and trade outlets such as the 80-plus i-SITE’s around the country can order their stock and keep track of what they need using our recording system.”