N.Z. reaches out to 'forgotten’ U.S. states

Press, 27 July 1988, Page 43

N.Z. reaches out to 'forgotten’ U.S. states

By

JOHN HUTCHISON

San Francisco

New Zealand’s travel office in San Francisco and 15 commercial travel wholesalers and suppliers have joined in a scheme to reach prospective tourists in eight "forgotten states.”

The phrase is applied to populations too scattered and too far away to be cultivated by personal visits from the staff of the Tourist and Publicity Office, which has only three full-time employees. < Of the 17 states in this huge sales territory, four areas — northern California, Oregon, Washington

and Nevada, where about 18 million people live — can be cultivated with some intensity, and they are highly productive of tourist travel to New Zealand. The eight chosen for a different approach are Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. Although they are not key producing states, they do account for 4 per cent of total United States visitors to New Zealand.

“They cannot and should not be ignored,” said Jeff Gibb, the regional manager, whose office comprises alpo a

marketing officer, fellow New Zealander Craig Radford, a secretary, and the part-time help of two persons shared with the New Zealand Trade Commission

Messrs Gibb and Radford have devised a procedure to stimulate 700 travel agencies in the eight states to sell New Zealand as a travel destination. Fifteen companies which wholesale travel to New -Zealand or which supply accommodation or services to tourists there have joined with the N.Z.T.P. to produce packets of detailed information for the agents.