Key predicts $65 million payback from tourism push in Australia

Thursday 14th May 2009

Prime Minister John Key says the marketing campaign to lure more Australian tourists may result in a $65 million payback from increased visitor numbers.

The government and Air New Zealand each spent $2.5 million on the campaign targeting the nation’s biggest source of tourists. The campaign is expected to attract 35,000 more visitors from Australia, boosting revenue by $65 million, Key told a hotel industry conference in Auckland today.

Some 976,000 Australian made short-term visits in the year ended March 31, accounting for 41% of total tourists, according to government figures. Key, who is also Tourism Minister, hopes to have plans in place by the time he meets Australian PM Kevin Rudd in August to streamline customs and immigration on trans-Tasman flights.

“It is early days, but it looks like the number of tourists coming out of Australia has increased since this funding boost,” Key said. “The more we can get trans-Tasman travel to feel like a domestic flight, the more Australians will come to New Zealand.”

Tourist numbers from Australia have proved resilient as the economic downturn across the Tasman has been milder than in other major sources of visitors, such as the U.K. and the U.S. Australian tourists fell 2.4% to 179,773 in the first three months of 2009 from a year earlier. Total arrivals dropped 7.2% in the same period.

Air NZ increased the number of passengers it carried on trans-Tasman and Pacific routes 0.8% to 221,000 last month, and increased its passenger capacity 7.2% on these flights.

Shares in the national carrier slipped 1.9% to $1.06 in trading on the NZX 50 index today.

Key said the country needs “to ensure our marketing efforts are focused on the right countries” and singled out China as an emerging prospect for growth. Of the 53 million outbound Chinese tourists, 100,000 come to New Zealand, and Key said a tourism cooperation agreement between the two nations should lead to “greater coordination” the nations’ tourism agencies.

He ruled out a “big boost” for tourism marketing in this year’s budget, which will be announced on May 28, but said he expects the government will lift its investment over the next few years.

Key also promised $50 million for the construction of a national cycleway over the next three years as a means to promote New Zealand’s environmental responsibility. The proposal came out of the government’s job summit in February as a means a way to curb rising unemployment. The jobless rate rose to 5% in the first three months of this year.

Businesswire.co.nz

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