100 per cent Pure brand 'under threat'

Bruce Poon Tip says adventure travellers are attracted to a country through the cultural experiences on offer. Photo / Greg Bowker

New Zealand risks falling off the radar for adventure travellers because its 100 per cent Pure branding does not reflect the country's culture and will be hard to live up to in an eco-conscious world, the chief executive of the world's largest adventure company has warned.

Bruce Poon Tip, founder and owner of G.A.P Adventures, which handles more than 90,000 adventure travellers a year, will speak about his concerns to New Zealand tourism players at an eco-tourism conference today.

Poon Tip, a Trinidad-born Canadian who set up his business in 1990 and turned over $203 million in the year to June, said adventure tourists were often attracted to the cultural side of a country and New Zealand had a wealth of it on offer.

But he said that was not the message coming across in New Zealand's 100 per cent Pure marketing campaign and there was a danger New Zealand could lose out to destinations such as Peru, Egypt and China.

Poon Tip said he rated a visit to Auckland's Otara markets as one of his favourite tourism experiences.

But it's a place which does not make it into the tourism campaigns run by Tourism New Zealand.

He also believed the 100 per cent Pure brand would be difficult to live up to in a world where people were becoming more environmentally conscious.

"It's a really sweeping statement. It is going to be difficult to deliver on that over a long period of time."

100 per cent Pure celebrated its 10th anniversary last week and Prime Minister John Key, who is also Tourism Minister, has said the Government wants the brand to be extended to other areas.

But Poon Tip said the brand was already under pressure.

"Tourism New Zealand for the first time is feeling the pressure of that slogan."

But Poon Tip also said it had been a successful brand and New Zealand was the envy of many other countries.

But it was up to tourism operators to ensure the brand was lived up to, he said.