KEY POINTS:
Tourism New Zealand's highly successful 100 per cent Pure New Zealand campaign is being relaunched to make the most of the new digital age.
The message is being adapted to reach people through digital music players, blog sites, the internet and electronic billboards.
The campaign, launched eight years ago, had attracted an additional 900,000 visitors, said Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton.
In 1999 the campaign was globally ground-breaking because it was the first in the world to use a single country brand and many other countries had followed New Zealand's lead to market their country under a single banner, he said.
However, Mr Hickton said tourism expectations had changed and people no longer wanted just to tick countries off a list. They wanted to go to places for a unique experience.
He said tourists also wanted to justify their visit after air miles and carbon emissions had become issues.
Catherine Bates from Tourism New Zealand said in 1999 when the 100 per cent Pure New Zealand campaign was launched, television and the print media were the key medium to reach people.
She said the media environment had been turned upside down with a noticeable change in the predominance of 'screens'.
"The common delivery element is the use of screens, whether computer, television or hand-held mobile device, and the common delivery feature is convenience," she said in the latest issue of the magazine Tourism News.
She said the 100 per cent Pure New Zealand brand was moving from expressing New Zealand as a destination to presenting it as an experience.
- NZPA
