Auckland Airport builds new Independent Traveller programme

Auckland Airport builds new Free Independent Traveller programme in Indonesia

A new Auckland Airport marketing promotion, with leading Indonesian travel writer and media personality Marischka Prudence, is set to attract more Indonesian visitors to New Zealand

Following the success of a previous promotion, which saw social media influencer and celebrity Indonesian chef Farah Quinn promoting premium New Zealand to affluent Indonesians, Auckland Airport is launching a new campaign with a focus on attracting growth in the Indonesian Free Independent Traveller (FIT) market.

The new promotion with travel partner Wego will see their travel influencer Marischka Prudence hit our shores this week and travel the country partaking in activities that range from diving to black-water rafting and all the while blogging about her adventures on Indonesian social media and Wego.

Glenn Wedlock, Auckland Airport General Manager Aeronautical Commercial, says the promotion is part of the Airport’s Ambition 2020 strategy and is specifically focused on driving inbound tourism growth by stimulating Indonesian awareness of independent and semi-independent travel options in New Zealand.

“Indonesia represents a major opportunity for New Zealand. Holiday arrivals from Indonesia have increased over 100% within the last five years alone and, with a population of over 240 million and a growing economy, there is huge potential for further growth. Indonesia is our closest Asian market and has a GDP that is 15% greater than Australia and forecast to be three to four times richer than Australia by 2040,” continues Mr Wedlock.

“As well as this, according to the Nielson Global Survey of consumer Confidence & Spending Intentions, Indonesia is the third most consumer confident country in the world. This is important as it is fuelling a growing middle-class which represents a great opportunity for us in terms of increasing the number of Indonesian FIT’s visiting New Zealand.”

“We believe that bringing Marischka over here to experience New Zealand, promote it to her followers and link back to products on Wego, will be a very effective way of building travel volumes from Indonesia. Marischka is an influential contributor to Wego and we are excited to be hosting her and also to be in partnership with Wego. Ideally aligned with our FIT target market, Wego, the Asia Pacific and Middle East's leading travel metasearch engine, has high reach in Indonesia and is very influential through its social media channels.”

“What we are doing here is appealing to Indonesian’s love of social media to raise awareness of what New Zealand can offer the Indonesian Free Independent Traveller. Internet expansion in Indonesia has doubled since 2008 and although only 25% of the population use the internet, this still represents a staggering figure of 61 million Indonesian internet users. As well as this, in the major cities, 71% of the middle-class owns a mobile phone with almost half of them accessing the internet through their phone.”

“Our partnership with Wego is a fantastic vehicle for us to drive into the Free Independent Traveller / Semi-Independent Traveller market in Indonesia. This, coupled with the expansion of connections across airlines in Asia and direct New Zealand-Bali air services, as well as the previous marketing campaigns we have engaged in, has lead Auckland Airport to anticipate further growth in Indonesia this year.”

“We know from our recent commissioned in-depth research that our previous promotions have reached over 20% of the Indonesian travel market already. We are committed to working hard to expand this further and we believe that Wego is the perfect partner to achieve this. Our research also indicates that Indonesians have a great alignment with New Zealand product with a high focus on scenery, walking/hiking, soft adventure activities such as mountain biking, cultural exchange and food and shopping and we look forward to working with Wego and Marischka to highlight the opportunities in New Zealand.”

Marischka Prudence

Marischka Prudence began her experience as a news journalist in 2008. Her previous job involved travelling around the world and Indonesia. Marischka then started to enjoy seeing different places and different people every day. Her ability to scuba dive then brought her into the travelling world. She began hosting "Archipelago” – a travel program on Metro TV - in 2010, then hosting and co-producing for "Travelista" (also a travel program on Metro TV).

Now Marischka is living life as a travel blogger and writer, and also a social media enthusiast who keeps on spreading the spirit of travelling to her friends and followers through Twitter, Instagram, blog, Facebook and YouTube. Marischka is also a freelance contributor for several websites and magazines, specialised on travel writing. Her dedication brought the Youth Women Netizen Award from Marketeers Magazine and Marischka is also listed as 50 Creative Tourism Ambassador 2012 by The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of Indonesia. At the present time she is also preparing her book and website which will contain her travel journey and showcase her personal passion for tourism and the love of traveling.

Ends

© Scoop Media