Tourism New Zealand launches $5.1 million ‘If You Seek’ campaign to attract high-quality visitors

Tourism New Zealand is launching a multi-year $5.1 million campaign to sell the country to “high quality” visitors and, for the first time, targeting Kiwis with global advertising.

Ads will target not only
affluent, but also those potential overseas visitors who will spend longer here, visit external tourist spots and engage with local people and experiences, Tourism NZ (TNZ) says.

Last week Tourism Minister Stuart Nash reportedly said he did not want to attract two-minute noodle-eating visitors, promoting on Facebook how cheap New Zealand can be.

The ‘If You Ask’ campaign takes what Tourism NZ says is a different approach to destination marketing by teasing audiences with snippets of what’s on offer and inviting the curious, those who will take the time to ask for more from their visit .

Tourism NZ chief executive René de Monchy said there was stiff competition as other destinations, closer to source markets, stepped up campaigns.

Asked how the new campaign would weed out two-minute noodle eaters, he said there were a number of criteria.

“High quality is not only about the money you spend in the country, but also the interest you have in the culture and nature, how you want to contribute, how you want to explore,” he said.

“And of course that’s what we’re going to be aiming for around the world, looking for people who really want to explore and want to engage with nature, who want to tour our country, who want to learn from experience, to all… those things that I think are increasingly essential to the marketing work that we do.”

De Monchy said someone on a gap year could be more valuable than an American tourist who has limited time to spend in the country.

In this context, a backpack with a long stay will do many activities, see most of the country and go off the beaten track.

He did not think that they would be prevented from visiting and filling the vacancies in tourism and hospitality.

“From the work we’re doing, I don’t think so, because we’re looking for more of a mindset.”

The new ads, launched in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, China, Britain, Singapore, Japan, Germany, India, Korea and Canada, took a different route from previous campaigns.

Not only is If You Seek a global campaign aimed at a local audience, the ads are more of a teaser rather than delivering the full experience of the destination.

“We’re teasing the audience a bit more. The temptation for a destination is to bombard people with too many things you can do in one place – we want people to dig in, take their time to research before they visit.” said de Monchy.

The short clips for New Zealand would have different voices, but the campaign was “more effective” because of the reach in the domestic market, which, before the pandemic, accounted for 60 percent of annual tourism spending of $41 billion.

TNZ research shows that around two-thirds of New Zealanders intend to take a holiday within the next year and 42 per cent are motivated to visit a local destination they have not visited before on their next trip, despite now have the opportunity to travel abroad.

Since New Zealand’s borders reopened there had been an increase in arrivals visiting friends and family, but de Monchy said that was likely to change as more tourists arrived here. There were anecdotal reports of strong demand for school holidays from Australian tourists, particularly in ski destinations.

Around the world the limited supply of flights and accommodation and high demand for travel were driving up prices, against a backdrop of higher inflation across the board.

It was difficult to assess how this would affect travel patterns over the next two to three years.

“We’re in this kind of weird period right now where this is the first trip that people can really commit to in over two years. People are booking with short lead times and paying prices that historically wouldn’t ‘they did – I’m not sure this will be the continuing trend.’