More money needed to promote NZ

Air New Zealand says the Government needs to get serious about the amount of money it allocates to promoting the country.

The airline has been one of the sponsors of Tourism New Zealand's garden at the Chelsea Flower Show. The bush and beach scene garden based on Karekare Beach on Auckland's west coast, won a silver-gilt medal at the London show, in a campaign designed to create greater awareness of New Zealand and encourage more tourists down under.

Tourism New Zealand has been given an additional $15 million in this year's Budget, but Ed Sims from the national carrier says it will not go far. He says with current funding levels there is a grave risk tourism promotion efforts will go backwards.

Mr Sims says Air New Zealand has spent $2 billion refurbishing planes and buying new ones. In October, it is also launching a second daily service to London via Hong Kong, which means it will be the only airline to offer around-the-world flights on the same carrier.

Mr Sims says that commitment has to be backed up by continued visitor numbers.

"We need to make sure that that level of investment is adequately protected by generating enough demand from our key markets."

He says there is a lot of competition from many countries vying to lure tourists.

"We need to be very aware of how busy and how cluttered these markets are in which we operate and you need to keep a minimum spending level otherwise you disappear from the minds of travel agents and tour operators incredibly quickly."

Air New Zealand itself spends several million dollars in marketing and promotions in the UK market, irrespective of the Tourism NZ funding, but Mr Sims says when that is translated back into British pounds, it only equates to a fortnight's-worth of television advertising.

"That's only two weeks out of 52 weeks that we can promote New Zealand visibly and loudly in the marketplace. For the other 50 weeks, we've got to be subject to advertising from Australia, Canada, Botswana, Namibia and any other destination that is currently hot in passengers' minds. We can disappear off the radar very, very quickly."

He believes funding must recognise the contribution that tourism makes as the nation's largest industry. Mr Sims says while government funding comes from the taxpayer, he wants to see the tourism industry itself coming up with creative ways to develop a pool of money that the sector can draw on to promote New Zealand as a tourist destination and suggests a broader industry forum be set up.

His comments are being backed up by Graeme Osborne from Tourism Auckland, who says the Government's funding of Tourism New Zealand is not competitive. He believes $100 million is a more realistic figure. He says a lot of livelihoods depend on tourism with thousands of people in the Auckland region alone employed in tourism-related jobs.

Mr Osborne says New Zealand is up against countries such as Australia which has a huge amount of funding available to promote itself.

George Hickton CEO of Tourism New Zealand says while his organisation has been allocated more money for the moment, it will be keeping the government informed about how competitive that amount is for the future.

Tourism New Zealand's total funding from the government for the next few years is $69 million.

- NEWSTALK ZB