12 Jun 2013

Deal reached to lure more travellers

5:43 am on 12 June 2013

Air New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand are to jointly spend $20 million to lure more travellers to the country.

The memorandum of understanding means they will each invest more than $10 million over the next 12 months to target key markets including the United Kingdom, Australia, China and Hong Kong, as well as emerging ones such as India and Indonesia.

Christopher Luxon.

Christopher Luxon. Photo: AIR NEW ZEALAND

Air New Zealand chief executive Christopher Luxon said the deal will help both it and Tourism New Zealand, its largest marketing partner, convert more opportunities into increased inbound tourism.

"It means that we can enable more advertising ... (and) more trade familiarisation visits, so that more people get familiar with what's here and then can sell it to their customers.

"And it certainly means we can bring a lot of media down here to New Zealand as well who can also then promote New Zealand and what we're all about."

The deal to promote travel to New Zealand represents an 80% increase on the previous year's joint marketing budget.

Mr Luxon said the plans include working together on a marketing campaign linked to the release of the next instalment of The Hobbit trilogy.

Air New Zealand has also unveiled new livery featuring the official New Zealand Fern, after signing a 15-year licensing deal with the Government.

Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler said the new deal fits with its strategy to work in partnerships to promote New Zealand.