Quality versus quantity - tourism shares dairy's challenge

Friday, 23 June 2017

Each time a new airline begins flying here it is heralded as a good thing by the tourism industry, but remaining sustainable is about more than bums on seats warns a marketing expert.

Head of an international marketing company says that going for quality over quantity is the real challenge for New Zealand tourism.

As visitor numbers continue to climb tourism's 'value over volume' mantra mirrors that of the dairy industry.

And like dairying it is keen to bolster public support for the industry in the face of a backlash against environmental impacts caused by messy freedom campers, as opposed to dairy cows.

TimeZoneOne chief executive and ex-pat Kiwi Daniel Thomas said our open skies policy had resulted in rapid growth in the number of international airlines flying here - 29 at last count - and that could make it more difficult to consistently deliver great visitor experiences.

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'New Zealand's challenge is quality versus quantity, that's hard when you have so many airlines flying to a small part of the world.

'If you have all this capacity coming into the country, it's good for the [New Zealand] consumer, but may not be so great for the tourists.'

Thomas' company, founded in Christchurch and now headquartered in Chicago, counts the Illinois Office of Tourism and the Chicago Wolves ice hockey team among its clients.

It also works for New Zealand operators and tourism promotion agencies such as Lake Wanaka Tourism, Destination Queenstown, Te Puia and Whale Watch Kaikoura.

Thomas said international visitors escaping overcrowded home cities did not want to experience that here and were expecting to come to a country that was beautiful, pure and relatively unpopulated.

'They don't want to come to another city and deal with infrastructure problems like we have in America or Europe.

'I visit Queenstown four times a year. They're investing in infrastructure but there's definitely short term pain there and it takes you 20 to 30 minutes to get one or two kilometres; it's not a great welcome in a destination that's so small.'

Thomas also warns that going overboard on accommodating the tastes of Chinese, American and European tourists risks 'diluting' the Kiwi experience.

By all means offer visitors a 'taste of home' a couple of times a week, and cater for them by translating signage and menus, said Thomas.

'But we have to be quietly confident in what makes us authentically New Zealand and we shouldn't sway away from that.

'We have to be hospitable and welcome guests from all countries but we have to stick to pushing local products.

'I'm a real advocate for your products, whether it's icecream, fish and chips, or lamb, beef and dairy.'

Tourism New Zealand chief executive Stephen England-Hall said targeting value was a high priority, but they were working to a broader definition of value.

It included increased visitation in the off season, getting tourists to stay longer, travel further out into the regions, and improving the quality of activities on offer.

'It's not about lining them up at the border and working out which have the biggest pockets.

'We don't want to have sentiment about New Zealand being a rip off or a bad place to go.

'We want them to spend more, but we want them to visit more places, do more things, and come off peak.'

England-Hall was also confident that the 100% Pure branding used to promote New Zealand for the past 18 years still had life left in it.

His interpretation of 100% Pure stretched to cover the whole Kiwi experience - people, food and scenery - rather than focussing solely on the environment.

The 'pure' tag line has attracted criticism in light of the increasing pollution of our rivers, lakes and streams, but England-Hall said it did not seem to be an issue with overseas tourists.

'We survey people when they leave, and nine out of 10 say that the environment meets or exceeds their expectations, so perhaps there's a bit of a gap between what we think as New Zealanders and what our visitors see.'