In the lodge of luxury

By SIMON HENDERY

One night of luxury at Evergreen Lodge, overlooking Lake Wakatipu just out of Queenstown, will set you back between $395 and $435.

But even if that type of tariff won't blow your budget, don't assume you'll get a room.

"We're turning them [tourists] away in droves now," says Gary Withers, who manages the boutique four-suite resort. "We're pretty much full all the time."

Evergreen's popularity is testament to the success on offer to those who follow the tourism industry's new golden rule: improve quality and increase yield.

In August the lodge won the top award at tourism's equivalent of the Oscars: the Tourism Industry Association's New Zealand Tourism Awards.

It was fitting that the year's top honour went to an up-market operation. The TIA, Tourism NZ and other industry bodies are increasingly pushing the message that growth for tourism will come through increasing yield - squeezing more cash out of our overseas visitors rather than squeezing more of them through the gate.

Back in May 2001, a joint industry and Government blueprint, the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2010, laid down the challenge. It said that, under existing industry conditions, spending by international visitors would increase from $5.4 billion in 2000 to $9.3 billion in 2010 as tourist numbers rose from 1.8 million to 3.2 million.

But under a series of organisational changes the strategy proposed, that 2010 spending could rise to $14.8 billion with only a slight increase in visitor numbers, the report said.

Less than four months later the events of September 11 shifted the industry's focus from growth to survival as tourism and travel dried up worldwide. But the slump proved only temporary. Visitor numbers are again at record levels and analysts say the forecasts remain achievable.

The task now is to ensure that an increasing percentage of the tourists who arrive in the country match the "ideal visitor" profile developed by Tourism NZ.

We want to attract the 5 to 8 per cent of our target markets' populations who are wealthy, have a sense of adventure and are willing to pay to for an "authentic" New Zealand experience.

Withers does not consider Evergreen Lodge to be at the top end of the luxury scale, showing that the industry is embracing the message. "I see us really now more as mid-range. You've got your high-end properties here now, which are going to cost you $2000 a night to stay at."

International luxury lodge guide Andrew Harper's Hideaway Report listed three New Zealand lodges in a readers' choice of the world's 20 top resorts, published last September. They were Taupo's Huka Lodge (where a night for two at one of the retreat's 20 suites during the peak summer season costs just under $2200), Glenorchy's Blanket Bay Lodge ($1090 to $2390 a night per couple) and Wharekauhau Country Estate in Featherston ($1700 a night).

Sitting down to dinner with his guests, Withers often hears that New Zealand's low exchange rate is helping to build its reputation as a desirable destination among the affluent target market.

Last year visitor numbers rose 6 per cent while spending by overseas tourists rose 9 per cent - further evidence that tourism operators are moving more upmarket.

Increasing industry yield is not just a matter of growing the luxury accommodation market, however - even backpackers are being tempted to spend more.

While they may appear at first sight to be the type of tight-fisted visitors we would want to discourage, backpackers contributed more than 13 per cent of the country's $5.9 billion tourism earnings last year.

They may not frequent five-star hotels, but tend to spend more time in the country and so spend more than the average visitor.

International hotel group Accor will this year launch what it says is the world's first globally branded backpacker accommodation network, starting with New Zealand and Australia.

Accor's interest in the market follows several years of scrubbing-up by the smaller players already catering to backpackers.

"Today's backpackers are better educated and likely to be better informed and better travelled," says the head of Accor's new backpacker business, Graeme Warring.

"They have high expectations from their accommodation and expect the latest in communications, entertainment and facilities."


Tourists ready for top service

Lavinia Calvert enjoyed her stay at Evergreen Lodge so much that she bought the business.

New Zealand-born Calvert has lived overseas for the past 10 years pursuing a career with news service Reuters.

Now the New York-based global publisher of Reuters.com, she travels back to New Zealand about twice a year. With US colleagues she spent a night at Evergreen before walking the Milford Track in December 2001.

Some time after her stay she learned that the lodge was on the market.

"I'd been looking for a slice of Kiwi paradise for some time," she says.

"Every time I go home I travel domestically, and I was looking for a long-term investment property. When I looked more closely at Evergreen it seemed like a good opportunity."