How is life in New Zealand at the moment?

Life in New Zealand was as close to normal as possible for most of last year. New Zealand’s management of COVID-19 has been cited as world class, resulting in just 2,738 recorded cases since the start of the pandemic.

Just over one million doses have been administered to date, with 382,00 people fully vaccinated, 7.8 per cent of the population. There are travel bubbles in place with Australia and the Cook Islands. The success of the current bubble arrangements will provide a ‘proof of concept’ blueprint for future bubbles and a first step to resuming inbound travel from other international markets, as it becomes safe and practical to do so.

On an economic level, based on the most recent New Zealand Government treasury ‘Weekly Economic Update’ from 25 June 2021, all indicators point to a strong economic recovery driven by a surge in housing and retail spending. Gross domestic product (GDP) rose 1.6 per cent in the three months through to March according to Statistics New Zealand, well ahead of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's estimate of a 0.6 per cent fall. New Zealand's success in virtually eliminating COVID-19 in the country allowed it to reopen its domestic economy before other advanced nations, boosting employment and consumer spending.

Consumer confidence does differ across age groups, with confidence among those aged 30 and over now back around average levels. Those aged 18 to 29 are still very pessimistic, likely due to ongoing travel restrictions and the long-term trajectory of the economy, particularly the housing market.

From a tourism perspective the opening of the Trans-Tasman bubble was a significant moment for Australia and New Zealand and an important step in helping kick start the return of international tourism to Australia, facilitating long overdue friend and family reunions. New Zealand is Australia’s second largest source market for international visitation and the fourth most valuable for spend, reaching $2.6 billion in 2019. It is also our largest market for international visitation for business events. Therefore, a great deal of importance rests on the success of the bubble to help drive our tourism recovery.

With other international borders closed, there is a significant opportunity to encourage the 1.7 million Kiwi travellers who normally travel to other destinations to choose Australia as their next holiday destination. To this end, Tourism Australia has invested in marketing campaigns and industry partnerships to inspire Kiwis to think differently about Australia, promoting the incredible depth, diversity, and uniqueness of experiences available in Australia designed to stimulate consideration and intent to book a holiday.

What is the latest news from our key stakeholders in market?

I was lucky enough to visit New Zealand earlier this month with a delegation from Tourism Australia on our first market visit since the bubble opened. While in New Zealand we hosted an industry, media, and business events function at QT in Auckland, which provided a fantastic opportunity to reconnect and reengage with our industry and media friends, peers, and customers.

The New Zealand visit was doubly important for Tourism Australia – firstly, as an opportunity to share our insights and research on the market with our trade, media, and business events partners, and secondly as a fact-finding mission to improve our understanding around the challenges and opportunities in the market, which allows us to adapt our strategic approach for the year ahead.

The most prominent feedback received from our stakeholders was recognition that consumer confidence in New Zealand is lower than amongst Australians, and since opening the Trans-Tasman bubble visitation has been slower than anticipated. There are also challenges with availability in many popular destinations.

On a holistic level we know that Australia delivers what Kiwis want in a holiday, including safety and security, value for money and world class natural beauty and wildlife. Our goal is to lift consumer confidence when it comes to travel plans and convert consideration into intent to travel in the next six months. We will also aim to educate travellers about the need to book earlier for popular destinations and be ready to recommend alternative destinations and experiences aligned with traveller’s preferences.

From a business events perspective, we are encouraged by what we are hearing from clients in planning for future events. There is excitement for the Trans-Tasman bubble and Australia’s business events industry will probably start to see business from New Zealand returning in late 2021 and early 2022. With other international borders still closed, there is a significant opportunity to encourage Kiwi’s to choose Australia for their next business event and to explore the unique offerings across Australia.

What are Tourism Australia's key areas of focus in these challenging times?

There are several challenges materialising in the New Zealand market. The first is the issue of over-familiarity and how we challenge Kiwi perceptions of an Australian holiday. Kiwis think they know Australia and have put it on the back burner in favour of a domestic holiday or other international destinations. We are also competing for a share of consumer’s discretionary spend against other categories like retail shopping, home renovations and housing investment.

We need to ensure we are consistently providing inspirational and aspirational experiences which drive desirability for Australia and showcases the depth and uniqueness of experiences available across the country. We also need to focus on encouraging Kiwi travellers to do something for the first time (in 2019 only seven per cent of New Zealand arrivals were first time visitors), including showcasing lesser-known parts of Australia for an adventure or well-earned break.

We also need to address the confidence issue and perceptions around the complexity of travelling to and within Australia in a COVID world, especially considering the varying state and territory protocols pre and post arrival. To support this challenge, we are currently working on a new campaign to break down barriers and present the facts about planning and booking a holiday in a clear and concise way, demonstrating an Aussie holiday is hassle free. We are keen for our industry and media partners to jump on board and support this campaign by amplifying our messaging across their own channels in a whole of industry approach to solving the confidence issue.

Additionally, we will be supporting the industry via our online Aussie Specialist Program, which has been developed and funded in collaboration with our state and territory tourism partners. Training will focus on how to sell Australia beyond the known gateway destinations, including on the ground training with the appointment of an Aussie Specialist Trainer trainer to be based in Auckland who will help Tourism Australia evolve and improve our training in line with New Zealand market needs.

For business events, we will continue to drive demand for Australia as an international business events destination via a content-led marketing strategy (including Australia Next our incentive magazine which provides inspiring content to showcase Australia’s business events offering). For distribution, the focus is to maintain customer relationships, deliver engagement and tailored trade activity to drive conversion (such as educational visits) with regular sales visits to market to connect.

Our industry is built on relationships, so it is really about the opportunity to reconnect with our clients face to face. While we have stayed in touch remotely during borders being closed, the true value of connecting in person is irreplaceable.

In these trying times, we could all do with some good news. What has put a smile on your face recently?

My recent trip to New Zealand was my first overseas trip since January 2020. I am sure many of us find the airport experience onerous at best, yet for some reason I could not wipe the smile of my face that I was visiting New Zealand.

Finally, what advice o you have for the Australian industry wanting to stay engaged with the New Zealand market?

Tourism Australia provides a variety of industry tools and resources to stay up to date and engaged with the Australia market.

Visit the Tourism Australia Corporate Website to access a range of helpful statistics including domestic marketing performance, aviation statistics and the domestic tourism snapshot. You will also be able to view Tourism Australia’s latest campaigns and webinars.

Tourism Australia produces a range of industry, media, and special interest newsletters. Published every Wednesday, Essentials provides updates on Tourism Australia’s campaigns, Australian tourism industry news and events as well as industry opportunities and new destination and product news.

The Aussie Specialist Program (ASP) is Tourism Australia’s global online training program, shared by all eight state and territory tourism partners designed to provide frontline travel sellers from around the global with the knowledge and skills to best sell Australia.

The Trade Resource Hub is where our trade, media and key distribution partners can access tourism brand resources. The Trade Resource Hub includes, but is not limited to logos, articles, media kit, images, fonts, user guides, brand images, Signature Experiences assets and media materials.

Tourism Australia undertakes regular research via the Consumer Demand Project to understand how consumers view Australia as a holiday destination, and what most motivates them to travel to and around Australia; this also includes the Travel Sentiment Tracker which launched in April 2020 as a new piece of research to help us understand shifting consumer behaviour and travel sentiment.