Air NZ spurs region tourism blitz

By GREG ANSLEY

SYDNEY - It was an Olympian effort, but New Zealand and Australian tourism officials finally stood as one before the international media to promote the region.

Air New Zealand-Ansett had brokered the bid to spin more business off from the Games.

In an industry that defines itself by product differentiation, it has never been easy to persuade key national tourism promotion agencies to sell the idea of an Australasian package, even when research shows the US, for example, lumps us together as the South Pacific.

But the Games, and the overlapping national interests created by Air NZ's takeover of Ansett Australia, pushed the Australian Tourist Commission and Tourism New Zealand on to the same platform to support a programme to promote travel to both countries and the Pacific Islands.

The besieged transtasman dollars, Air NZ International general manager Grant Lilly said, had given promotion a further push.

Taking into consideration the buying power of the main currencies in this part of the world, the timing was perfect to stimulate tourism growth into Australasia and the South Pacific, he said.

The two airlines, the transtasman agencies and their counterparts from Fiji, Tonga, Cook Islands, Tahiti and Samoa used the international media presence in Sydney for the Games to target journalists whose work has already generated free promotion for Australia worth an estimated $A2.3 billion ($2.9 billion).

New Zealand visitor numbers soared 10 per cent in the year to June, and Australia predicts its tourist numbers - pushed by a 3.7 billion worldwide Games audience - will top 10 million a year by 2010. Journalists will be offered a MediaFares card, cutting up to 30 per cent off the lowest market fares for travel into and within the region for stories that can range from holiday destinations and wine to politics and industry.

The card also provides discounted accommodation, car hire and other travel costs, and online itinerary planning.

The airlines also launched a credit card-sized CD-Rom that plugs writers and broadcasters into local websites and gives the telephone directories of NZ and Australia.