Tourism New Zealand

Interest in New Zealand has exploded for the U.S. long-haul market in the last five years because its travel product is so well aligned with experiential travel—including adventure, culture and culinary/wine—as well as today’s demand for lesser known destinations. Tour¬ism New Zealand has broken down its target traveler demographics into distinct sub groups to maximize marketing efforts

“We have three distinct segments that we work very closely with,” says Jacqui Lloyd, trade development manager for Tourism New Zealand, Americas. “We have what we call our “Active Considerates,” who are actively considering a trip to New Zealand. Ideally, New Zealand is in their top five desti¬nations to travel to, and we try to push their preference so that we’re the next trip they take overseas. And that’s allowed us to tar¬get in the U.S. market what we believe to be about 22 million. Then we break that down into three segments. We have our Young Ad¬venturers, who are aged between 22 and 45. Our Independent Explorers, which are the 45 to 65 year olds. And then our organized tours, which are in that older bracket, the 65-plus crowd. And what we’ve found in all of those segments, all of them have a very strong want for experiential travel.”

Lloyd says even with traditional-style organized group tours like cruises or a bus coach, today’s travelers still want to get out and explore and experience the real New Zealand. Popular stops include meeting locals at farmer’s markets and winemakers at wineries.

“And that’s something that’s interesting from a product standpoint because New Zealand in many ways is designed around all of those experiences,” says Lloyd. “About 95% of our tour operators have less than five people on staff, so you’re always going to meet the locals, you’re always going to meet the person who runs the company, whether it’s parasailing or hiking or even a garden tour. You’re always going to meet the people connected to those, and that’s worked out really well for us because we haven’t really needed to create that product. It’s already existed organically, and continues to evolve.”

Few other countries have so many extreme travel experiences like bungee jumping, cliff swinging and jetboat river tours so easily accessible to major urban centers. For ex¬ample, the world’s first permanent bungee jumping attraction is Kawarau Bridge Bungy outside Queenstown. Adjacent to the bridge, there’s a large viewing deck jutting out from the side of the gorge, where a DJ cranks out Aerosmith and AC/DC music to pump up the audience.

In 2013, over 400,000 people visited the bridge, with about 10% actually making the jump.

“So even if you’re not doing it yourself, you’re part of the adventure and that’s why they built that center to be able to cater to people like me,” says Lloyd. “I don’t think I would ever jump off that bridge, so it’s about creating a product for all different levels that’s really important.”

New Zealand is also an interesting case study with regard to the country’s reliance on travel agents.

“The travel agent is still very, very important for us,” says Lloyd. “New Zealand is a long haul destination, it’s not something you can easily book online. Yes, you might be able to book your flights and accommodations, but a lot of people will still use a travel agent to discover more of the country, because although it’s small, it’s not as well known as other destinations. So you find the travel ad¬visor can tailor the adventures to whatever their client needs. And sometimes it takes an agent to push people a little out of their comfort zone to try something new.”