Louise Upston: Tourism Minister on the second part of the Regional Tourism Boost plan

Another tourism announcement is set to come – another round in the Regional Tourism Boost plan.  

The goal is to get international travellers out of the main centres to explore all that New Zealand has to offer. 

Round two will focus on the April to June season, when there’s typically fewer travellers and less activity. 

Tourism Minister Louise Upston told Andrew Dickens it’s about spreading visitors throughout the country, making sure they stay in different places and sample our amazing food and wine.  

It’s part of the $10 million fund they announced last year as part of the overall $70 million major events and tourism boost, she said, to the tune of $3.69 million. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
Right lady, Today, we haven't announced him from our Tourism Minister,
Louise Upston, and she'll be outlining the plan for round
two of her Regional Tourism Boost Plan and that goal
there is to get international travelers out of the main
centers and to explore all that New Zealand has to offer.
So she's announcing this later, but she's going to give
us a sneak peek, which we thank you greatly for. Louise.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Good morning, Good morning to you, and happy New Year.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
What can you tell us about what you're going to do.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Well, This is really more of a focus on making
sure we've got people coming into New Zealand to explore
our regions and particularly when it's not as busy as
it is at the moment. So this campaign will focus
on that April to June season and we've got wonderful
places all across New Zealand, some of them you've mentioned
that Talking Heads as Singer went to visit. Yeah, making

(01:09):
sure absolutely happens to be in my electorate or the
southern part of it, which is exciting. So we want
to make sure that more visitors come here, they stay
in a range of places around New Zealand, and they
also dine. So the Regional Tourism Boost is making sure
that people travel around the country, stay in different places,

(01:31):
sample out amazing food and wine, and it's really about
spreading visitors throughout the country.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
So how much are we going to be spending on this,
what sort of format are these ads or promotions going
to be, and what countries are we targeting.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
So this is part of a ten million dollar fund
that we announced as part of the overall seventy million
Major Events and Tourism Boost last year. So this is
ten million in total. This is the second half, so
three point sixty nine million. There's five different initiatives and
the really important thing is they are designed by the

(02:07):
regional tourism organizations who know their regions the best and
they're collaborating with neighbors. So we'll see sen campaigns. I'll
give you a bit of a tip. One of the
most focused on cycling, which we've got great cycling infrastructure
with our great rides all across New Zealand, so it's

(02:28):
attracting cyclists whether it's from North America, the States, Canada
or Australians. We're attracting from those countries in particular to
come to New Zealand and to really kind of explore
different parts of New Zealand. Really exciting campaigns.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
So I've had great trails, MIC trails are in very
difficult to get to places. I mean, Nelson has won
the Great Taste Trail there, it's quite hard to get
there if you don't have a car. So is it
realistic to expect the overseas visitors to go hunting out
these places and hard to get to places?

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah, So that's part of the regional campaigns is really
making it easier international visitors to plan their routes. So
whether they're driving, whether they're going by Campa van, or
whether they are connecting with regional airlines or trains or coaches.
So it's making it easier for them to get to
some of those places. And we do know that more

(03:26):
and more international travelers, particularly from country like China, are
moving away from the group travel and moving more independently
and self driving.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Part of it.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
We want to make it easier.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Part of my question I asked earlier, but you didn't answer.
I mean, where's the spend going to be on. Is
it going to be on traditional media or are you
going for the influencers and the social media vote.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
So each campaign is quite different, and as I say,
they're designed by the regional tourism organizations supported by Tourism
New Zealand, who have really deep insights about their consumers
about how to reach them. So there'll be a combination
across each of the five campaigns. But what we are

(04:09):
really focused on right now is making sure we increase
our visitor numbers to New Zealand. We're seeing good progress
Australia now is it ninety seven percent of the twenty
nineteen numbers, So that's really really encouraging, but we want
to get to one hundred by the end of the year.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Louise, I thank you, look forward to your announcement later
on Pittty. You can't tell us all the details right
now on the biggest radio station in New Zealand right now,
but there we are. But thank you so much for
your time. Louise Upston, who is the Minister for Social
Development and Tourism.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
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