Selling Taupō to the World
Destination Great Lake Taupō (DGLT) and operators have just come out of a busy ‘trade season’, when we actively market Taupō to the world.
This refers to the time of year when we sell our region’s products, services and new experiences to the travel trade (wholesalers, inbound tour operators, travel agents, online retailers and media). This remains an important component of our marketing mix in order to reach our key target long-haul markets such as the US, UK/Europe and our biggest market, Australia.
Attendance at key events such as TRENZ (New Zealand’s biggest tourism showcase and travel expo), eXplore Central North Island (key trade event for NZ-based travel trade) and in-market roadshows is vital for building key relationships, exposure and knowledge of the region.
“We’re now finding buyers have a level of knowledge about the region they didn’t have 2-3 years ago. They are now asking for specifics as opposed to ‘where is Taupō ’ and are actively seeking us out” says Destination Great Lake Taupō Business Events and Trade Manager, Karen Rainbow.
Alongside the travel trade work, DGLT continues to partner with Tourism New Zealand on three collaborative campaigns into Australia where our region has been heavily profiled – North Island Winter Holiday, NZ Ski and Spring Road Trips. The combined marketing investment by Tourism NZ and partners like DGLT is well above $2.5m and campaign reports are showing positive growth for our region as a result.
DGLT continues to market the region domestically through seasonal campaigns, with the current winter campaign in full swing promoting winter holiday experiences in our region. We continue to see great media coverage from our media programme with some excellent features across key publications in New Zealand, Australia and beyond.
Our regional statistics are showing good growth with visitor spend at year end up 5.9%, largely being driven by growth in international visitors, especially out of Australia, US and UK/Europe. This is resulting in a change to the domestic/international ratio which now sees 35% of visitors to our region from overseas. This is starting to generate interest in additional tourism infrastructure, both from existing businesses in the region, as well as from new players looking to relocate to Taupo.
This growth also creates the need for investment in existing tourism infrastructure to make sure we can sustain additional numbers of visitors. We (DGLT) are working alongside Taupō District Council to seek funding from central government for upgrades at key sites, targeting funds like the new Provincial Growth Fund and the Tourism Infrastructure Fund.