N.Z. travel promotion in U.S. hailed

Press, 26 November 1981, Page 26

N.Z. travel promotion in U.S. hailed

By

John Hutchison

in San Francisco

New Zealand’s tourism road show has completed its run across North America, attracting twice as many spectators as any previous show, and doubling the number of travel agents to attend the annual seminars on New Zealand travel.

The show, which included a wide-screen multi-media presentation of New Zealand’s attractions, and entertainment by the Tu Tangata Maori troupe, was jointly sponsored by the Government Tourist Bureau, Air New Zealand, and several New Zealand travel firms. Entitled, “Discover New Zealand,” it drew audiences of

interested traveller prospects totalling 35.697, compared with the 16,268 who saw a similar presentation last year. An accompanying trade seminar drew 2179 travel agents compared with the 1068 who attended last year.

“It was a tremendous success,” said Mr Len Hunt, senior travel commissioner for North America. “By far the best ever. Our last performance was the most successful of all — in San Diego, where we had to hold two showings to accommodate the crowds, about 2000 attended each show,” he said. A computer technique was used for the first time to identify many of the people

to whom invitations were sent. Their names and addresses had been stored in the computer from thousands of inquiries for information in response to New Zealand travel advertising through the year. For each city the show visited the computer could provide an appropriate invitation list to supplement invitations issued locally by travel agents to their prospects.

Mr Hunt said he was especially pleased at the turnout of travel agents. “We want not only to motivate travellers, but to educate the trade. Now we hope to see an increase in travel from the areas we visited,” he said. Sixteen cities in the United States and Canada were on the itinerary.

A rich dividend of the exercise, as in earlier years, was the publicity generated by the New Zealanders with the show. Ten television programmes — some running 30 minutes — were broadcast. There were 16 radio interviews and 24 newspaper articles.

The project's sponsors hope the show will breathe new life into the New Zealand tourism trade, which increased only moderately last year after a sharp upsurge in 1979. The levelling off is a world-wife phenomenon still plaguing the air travel industry.