Reality TV show boosts tourism

The celebrity fathers and their children enjoying the steambox experience at Te Puia. Photo / Supplied

China sees all city has to offer

A reality TV show set in Rotorua has screened to hundreds of millions of people in China, and is expected to attract more Chinese visitors to our region.

Tourism New Zealand said more than 400 million viewers across China tuned in for season two of Dad, where are we going? which featured 217 minutes of celebrities travelling around New Zealand. The penultimate and part of the final episodes were set in Rotorua.

The show follows five celebrity fathers and their children on an adventure to mystery destinations where they undertake challenges.

In Rotorua the contestants went eeling, mountain biking and one family got to experience Ogo. They also went to Te Puia and Hell's Gate.

Tourism New Zealand said the day after the episode screened, Ogo was one of the top searched key words on Weibo, China's top social media channel, with more than 20,000 searches within a 24-hour period.

Ogo site manager Kelly Hamana said they had already noticed a growth in the Chinese market.

Te Puia general manager of sales and marketing Kiri Atkinson-Crean said exposure from the show would have long-lasting benefits. "The show has given us unprecedented exposure in China -- we were already seeing a high level of interest from this market as a result of the episode, before it even screened, and we only expect this to increase over time.

"We are also doing follow-up work to ensure we maximise the exposure that we have had, with our CEO Tim Cossar and Asia sales director Serene Leong travelling to China in the coming weeks to meet with product managers."

Mayor Steve Chadwick said having Rotorua host the show was a massive coup.

"It's quite hard from a New Zealand perspective to comprehend the reach of this show, however we are confident this small insight into the Rotorua way of life no doubt will lead to more Chinese visitors choosing to visit New Zealand and in that Rotorua."

Destination Rotorua marketing general manager Oscar Nathan said Chinese tourism was extremely valuable to Rotorua.

"As Chinese viewers discover more about New Zealand and see well-known celebrities in destinations like Rotorua, these sorts of valuable endorsements coupled with the distinctive features of geothermal, lakes and indigenous culture of our region will only grow the appeal of New Zealand to the growing Chinese global travel market," he said.

Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler said the potential impact for the New Zealand tourism industry was hard to comprehend.

"The value of all the coverage achieved from this activity is estimated at $169 million, were we to buy that same level of advertising, more than the entire year's budget for Tourism New Zealand."

Since the episodes aired a marketing campaign has gone live in China promoting New Zealand as a holiday destination.