End of the golden road

A novel road trip comes to an end this month as a 9.7m Winnebago covered in images of New Zealand finishes a 46-city tour of the US and Canada.

The motor-home took off from Las Vegas in March and is the temporary residence of two New Zealanders.

Their aim is to educate American and Canadian travel agents to better sell New Zealand as a destination. Their transport was the brainchild of the US-based staff of Tourism New Zealand and the local agents they deal with.

Tourism NZ's chief executive, George Hickton, said the training team's unusual mode of transport had spinoffs in generating local publicity.

"Last time it operated it had television coverage from local TV stations who were turning up asking: "Who are these New Zealanders?" he said.

This is the third trip for the Winnebago, and the latest journey takes it from Nevada to Alberta and through five US states and two Canadian provinces.

Hickton said Tourism NZ had found the vehicle an effective way of getting to US agents, whose employers will not release them for training otherwise, while simultaneously providing an advertising hoarding in all the major cities.

"It has big images of our country and people do take notice of it."

Trips have run every two years. Qantas Holidays, the travel agency arm of Qantas, shares the cost and provides one of the training staff to travel on the Winnebago.

Hickton said New Zealand had increased its market share out of the US market in the past few years, "and we've put some of that down to the training going on through the bus".