Japanese to be persuaded to stay longer

Press, 9 March 1982, Page 15

Japanese to be persuaded to stay longer

From

Les Bloxham

in Bangkok

• The Tourist and Publicity Department will reshape its marketing strategy in Japan in a bid to persuade tourists from that country to spend longer in New Zealand. Their New Zealand holidays last only an average of 4 v 2 days compared with the Japanese world-wide total average of BV2 days. "Even if we can- get them to stay one more day it would make a considerable impact on our foreign exchange earnings,” said the department's general manger, Mr N. S. Plimmer, who is attending the annual conference of the Pacific Area Travel Association in Bangkok. “In future we are going to be targeting in on the length of time they spend here as well as the over-all growth of the market.” he said. "We are going to have to consult the Japanese outbound tour organisers and it

may well prove a very difficult target to achieve—the pattern might already have been set—but that will not deter us from making a very determined effort to convince them that they should stay longer.”

Mr Plimmer said .that a “hiccough” in the number of Japanese visitors to visit New Zealand in August and September had passed and that the latest returns, for October, showed a healthy recovery.

“We really have no reason to doubt that our original target growth of 30 per cent per annum in the Japanese market will not be achieved,” he said.

A senior vice-president of Japan Air Lines told a P.A.T.A. press briefing that the total Japanese outbound tourist market was expected to increase 7 per cent — 4.3 million people—over the next ■l2 months. The inbound market was expected to go up 13 per cent, or 1.7 million people.