Tourism New Zealand Receives Additional Marketing Funds

Kevin Bowler, chief executive of Tourism New Zealand, announced that New Zealand’s government has increased the tourism marketing budget by an additional NZ$30 million. The added funds take Tourism New Zealand’s total marketing budget to NZ $100 million, which is the most money that New Zealand has ever had to market the country.

The marketing focus will continue to be on the U.K., Australia, the U.S., Canada, China, Japan, India, Korea, and other parts of South East Asia. Funds allotted specifically for marketing to the U.S. will increase by approximately 20 percent, according to Bowler.

This will mark Tourism New Zealand’s single largest investment this year as the tourism organization has partnered with Air New Zealand to grow the country’s share of American visitors. In the coming year the alliance in the U.S. will invest almost three times as much as in 2009 to create a step-change in arrivals.

Currently, New Zealand welcomes just under 200,000 Americans to the country each year, which is about 0.6 percent of outbound American travel, but Tourism New Zealand’s goal is to attract an additional 100,000 U.S. visitors a year by 2014. For New Zealand that means estimated additional foreign exchange earnings of around NZ $346 million in international visitor spending for the New Zealand economy per year.