Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Tania Burt: Northland Inc Head of Destination on tourism organisations teaming up to shine a light on its tourism offerings

Transcript

Tania Burt: Northland Inc Head of Destination on tourism organisations teaming up to shine a light on its tourism offerings · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A conglomerate, you could save fifteen torourism organizations. They're hoping
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: to attract more overseas visitors to the North Island of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: New Zealand. So when you get all your foreigners coming
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: in at Auckland Airport, they want to steal them and
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: keep them in the north Land. Tarnia Bird's head of
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: destination at north and inc with me this morning, Twanna,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: good morning, good morning. You want to steal them all
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  Speaker 1: and keep them for yourself?
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  Speaker 2: Oh why not? We need more international visitors? Why not?
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Yes? So where do they normally go? Because it depends
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  Speaker 1: on who they are, right, but generally speaking, they come
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  Speaker 1: into Auckland, they go to Hobbiton, they go to they
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  Speaker 1: jump on a plane down to Queenstown and then they're out.
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  Speaker 1: Is that about fear, Yeah, you've.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Probably answered the golden roots question. So where do the
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  Speaker 2: majority of international visitors go? We do have them dispersed
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  Speaker 2: throughout the country, but when it comes to a region
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  Speaker 2: like ours, the only region north of Auckland, of course
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: they have to make a very intentional decision to turn
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: the other direction and add that into their trips. So
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  Speaker 2: for us we only get around twenty to thirty percent
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  Speaker 2: of our visitation is international. The rest is domestic, so
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  Speaker 2: hence the need to all work together to make sure
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  Speaker 2: that those international visitors are better dispersed throughout the country,
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  Speaker 2: throughout the island, and also to make sure that we
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  Speaker 2: get more because everyone needs a few more visitors.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: I was having a beer at the Duke of Marlborough
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  Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, which I seem to do
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  Speaker 1: a lot these days, and were speaking to the owner.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: He said, actually, he's had one of his best summers
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  Speaker 1: ever because we've had a lot more American tourists and
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  Speaker 1: Americans are more inclined to go up to Northland than say,
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  Speaker 1: you're Chinese visitors.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, he's absolutely correct. A bear at the Duke
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  Speaker 2: is always a good idea as well, so we support that.
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  Speaker 2: And this new collective of organizations working together will target Australia,
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  Speaker 2: America and primarily China. Those are the first three markets
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  Speaker 2: that will target. So yes, the American visitors are really
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  Speaker 2: important visitors. They do come, they do come to spend
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  Speaker 2: as well, and they do come to see and do
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  Speaker 2: so they're a really good visitor, especially for Northlands. So
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  Speaker 2: this summer we have seen a little bit of an
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  Speaker 2: uptick of international visitors. We're heading back towards you know,
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  Speaker 2: pre twenty twenty numbers and seeing some strength come through
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  Speaker 2: from America. So that's really good news for us and
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  Speaker 2: we're happy to keep growing that.
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  Speaker 1: So what are you actually going to do to get
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  Speaker 1: them to where you want them to go?
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  Speaker 2: So the idea behind this new MoU that was signed yesterday.
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  Speaker 2: The MoU is between all North Island regional tourism organizations,
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  Speaker 2: so fifteen organizations and supported by Auckland Airport, Wellington Airport
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  Speaker 2: and Hamilton Airport, so our international airports. The idea is
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  Speaker 2: that we have more direct to consumer, more trade activity
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  Speaker 2: happening offshore and in these markets to convince and to
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  Speaker 2: change those booking patterns and to convince people that North
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  Speaker 2: Island is the place to come. So it's really about
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  Speaker 2: investing ourselves in activity offshore. We'll go along with Tourism
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand's events as well, and Tourism New Zealand do
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  Speaker 2: support this collective initiative. So it's about North Island coming
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  Speaker 2: together and going together to market and it will just
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  Speaker 2: be a stronger proposition with us all there together.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Interesting, Tanya, appreciate your time this morning Tanya Burt, Northland
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  Speaker 1: Ink head of destination, but part of this group from
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  Speaker 1: the North Island trying to get desperate to get the
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  Speaker 1: tourists to stay here, raight. I mean it'd be nice
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  Speaker 1: if they also went to the South Island, but if
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  Speaker 1: they can stay longer in the North and that's obviously
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  Speaker 1: the goal for them.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 3:42
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• 3:45
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