New Zealanders Leave Home Before They See the Country

New Zealanders Leave Home Before They See the Country

“Don’t leave town until you’ve seen the country” was the catch cry of the last domestic tourism campaign in the 1980s. However, results of a Facebook survey of 6,000 New Zealanders show that Kiwis are far more likely to have visited Australia or the USA than our own iconic National Parks.

The survey conducted in October and November 2013 – immediately after the major television series, Wild About New Zealand (which highlighted New Zealand’s remarkable National Parks) revealed that while almost two thirds (62%) of New Zealanders have visited Australia and one third (33%) have been to the US, only one quarter (25%) have been to Fiordland National Park – a World Heritage Site and consistently ranked as one of the great National Parks of the World. Just slightly more (31%) have been to Abel Tasman National Park – one of New Zealand’s most popular and visited National Parks.

The Facebook survey also revealed that finding New Zealanders who have crossed Cook Strait to visit a National Park is even more difficult. Kiwis may fly routinely to Australia, the US or elsewhere but few North Islanders have visited the South Island’s iconic National Parks or fewer still South Islanders head north to Tongariro National Park and beyond. For example, almost 3 times as many North Islanders have been to Australia as Fiordland National Park. A similar proportion of South Islanders have visited Australia over New Zealand’s first (and one of the world’s oldest) National Parks – Tongariro.

New Zealand’s last national domestic tourism campaign – ‘Don’t leave town until you’ve seen the country’– ran more than 30 years ago by the then New Zealand Tourist and Publicity Department. Watch the 1984 TV advert here. Tourism New Zealand, set up in 1990 has by law no involvement or spending on promoting domestic tourism – which is left to individual tourism companies and the Regional Tourism Organisations. However, domestic tourism marketing is limited - an analysis of Television advertising in 2012 showed that more than 90% of travel advertising was promoting New Zealanders to travel overseas (source: TVmap/Nielsen Media Research TV advertising spend 2011-2012).

Outbound travel by Kiwis is at record levels in 2013 with almost 2.2 million trips by New Zealanders in the year to September 2013. This figure has doubled in the last eight years. Research has shown that the percentage of holiday dollars spent by New Zealanders on domestic versus international travel is probably at its lowest level in the country’s history. The direct effect of this is a negative impact on our Current Account; for more see: http://budurl.com/balanceoftravel.

To buck the trend and prompt Kiwis to visit our iconic National Parks - before they leave the country – the Wild About New Zealand Facebook contest offers Kiwis the chance to visit them – on one of two all expenses paid ‘trips of a lifetime’ – with prizes from DOC’s Great Walks, Interislander and Heritage Hotels. There are two great New Zealand travel prize packages (each valued at $5,000) for South Islanders and North Islanders alike to win. To enter visit the Wild About New Zealand Facebook page: www.facebook.com/wildaboutnewzealand or go directly to the Facebook contest at: http://budurl.com/wildcontest. Entries close Monday, December 2nd 2013.

“Visitors from all the world come to New Zealand and one of the main reasons is to visit and marvel at our National Parks. However, this survey tells a different story about Kiwis. Usually we are heading in the other direction - most of us leave home well before we have seen the country. New Zealand is not seen as exciting and we spend little money promoting it to Kiwis. New Zealand tourism has a huge amount of work to do to change this perception” Chris Adams (Miles Media, Former Head of Destination Coromandel and one of the creators of the Wild About New Zealand TV series). “The tourism sector in New Zealand has been through some tough years. The Sector Report on Tourism published this week highlights the 30% drop in international visitor spending on a per person basis over the past 10 years. Now is the time to invest much more in domestic marketing to address the unhealthy balance of travel in New Zealand caused by kiwis holidaying overseas in record numbers. At the moment - many international visitors have seen far more of our country than some Kiwis have”. Craig Wilson of Quality Tourism Development Ltd is an independent consultant in tourism with18 years in the tourism industry including at Tourism Auckland (now ATEED) and TranzRail (now KiwiRail).
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