$2m campaign to lure domestic tourists to Wellington

A $2 million campaign is being launched to lure people to Wellington for short holidays.

Positively Wellington Tourism chief executive Tim Cossar today said a television commercial would form the central part of the two-year campaign.

Funding was coming from Wellington City Council, Air New Zealand, Te Papa and some Wellington hotels.

The campaign reflected an increasingly competitive domestic tourism environment, Mr Cossar said.

With flights across the Tasman now costing about the same as domestic flights, Wellington was competing with Australian cities for visitors.

Positively Wellington Tourism said that in the year to December 2003 the value of domestic tourism to Wellington was $434.7 million, having grown 36 per cent in two years.

Wellington's average hotel occupancy was now one of the highest in the country with average weekend occupancy rates of 70 per cent. In 1995, before Wellington launched its first domestic marketing campaign, the comparative figure was 30 to 40 per cent.

- NZPA