Enthusiasm was high at Kiwi Link North America as travel advisors
reconnected with New Zealand tourism representatives and received
updates on the country’s travel industry outlook, target markets, new
developments and more.
“There's a whole lot of energy, because our borders are open and
we're open for business,” said Stuart Nash, minister of tourism for New
Zealand. “So, my message is: If New Zealand isn’t on your bucket list,
it should be.”
Here are a few key takeaways from the event.
With the country still scaling up its tourism offerings following the
reopening of borders, de Monchy advises travel advisors to book their
clients’ trips far enough in advance to avoid availability limitations.
“What you find now is that operators are really focused on making
sure they deliver a quality experience,” de Monchy explained. “So, in
some cases, they aren’t operating at 100% because they want to be able
to deliver a great experience. The key is booking and planning early.”
Travel is rebounding, but recovery will take several years
Leisure
travel has been a bit slow for New Zealand since its reopening just a
few months ago, but logically so for the current winter season. And, in
fact, the gradual restart is giving the industry time to build up ahead
of the busy season.
“Our traditional summer peak season starts around November/December,
and we’ve got good interest ramping up toward that,” de Monchy said. “In
a way, it’s good that the industry has the ability now to get ready for
summer. I think the challenge is, what do we want it to look like over
the next couple of years? But we’re trying to get a handle on that in
the immediate term.”
De Monchy acknowledged that it will likely take several years for the
industry to fully recover from the pandemic. Like many other global
destinations right now, New Zealand is facing staffing shortages and
other rebuilding challenges. However, the destination is working
actively to address them — and make the system even better than it was
before.
“What we did is set up an Industry Transformation Plan across eight
areas of our economy,” Nash said. “And for tourism, the first challenge
we’re looking to address is the workforce. This is a partnership between
government, unions and the industry, to say, ‘How do we build
aspiration for people to get into the tourism workforce, deliver on the
experience that tourists expect, and create an environment where it’s a
fun place to work, but also a career.’ We know that if we don’t get our
human resources right, we are not going to be able to deliver on the
promises we make.”
Nash also noted that these challenges are not affecting the quality of the visitor experience.
“It’s a fantastic time to travel to New Zealand,” he said. “Wherever
you go, you’re still going to get that really warm Kiwi welcome, and the
service you get is still going to be first-class.”
New Zealand is building a regenerative travel industry
In addition to making its tourism industry a better place to work, New Zealand has other plans to improve the sector, as well.
“We’re talking about sustainability, but we’re taking it a step
further,” Nash said. “During the lockdown, the government gave our
regional tourism organisations a decent chunk of money to take a good,
hard look at what they were doing. And a lot of them were putting out
really good promotional material without engaging their local community.
So, with regenerative tourism, the plan we put together is about going
out to key stakeholders in the community and saying, ‘Can we talk about
what you want to see with regards to tourism?’”
It's a strategy that Nash says will benefit both local communities
and visitors, creating a system in which travellers can have deeper,
more meaningful experiences in larger and smaller regions across the
country.
The ideal New Zealand traveller is looking for meaningful experiences
New
Zealand’s goal is to attract travellers seeking a transformational
experience in which they really interact with — and invest in — the
destination.
“We talk about high-quality tourists, and that isn’t just about
money,” Nash said. “It’s about tourists who engage in everything we’ve
got to offer, whether it be local community, local culture or local
attractions.”
“Part of our research and our targeting is to find out people’s
interests in culture, nature and society, so that we can start to use
those to attract them, but also encourage them to participate beyond a
financial contribution,” de Monchy added. “There’s so much more benefit
that can be had from travelling beyond just the obvious, so we are
looking for people who are interested in nature, interested in
regeneration, and interested in contributing to society as part of their
drive for traveling.”
Through ongoing education efforts and the Pure New Zealand Specialist
Program, the tourism board is working to get agents up to date on all
the changes that have taken place over the past few years, as well as to
provide practical information about visiting.
“We continually support the government in getting the requirements
and message through to the travel trade, so they can tell their
customers and make it as easy as possible," Monchy said.
Source: Travel Age West