Airline, Tourism NZ extend partnership

Air NZ says promotion of the Hobbit movies overseas shows how its joint deal with Tourism NZ is succeeding. Photo / Richard Robinson

Air New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand will extend a $20 million marketing partnership to promote the country in important markets over the next year.

The deal announced yesterday follows an agreement between the two last year to spend a similar amount.

Yesterday's announcement will extend co-operative marketing activity to Singapore and Southeast Asia, in support of Air New Zealand's proposed alliance with Singapore Airlines.

Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism John Key said he was delighted the agreement had been extended.

He said activity already undertaken under it and the benefits to New Zealand's tourism and economy "reinforce the partnership as one of the most efficient and effective ways to promote New Zealand".

Air New Zealand chief executive Christopher Luxon said extending the partnership would enable the organisations to continue building on the success of their initial agreement.

"Our joint activity to market The Hobbit films overseas has been incredibly successful," he said.

"The most recent campaign resulted in not only strong fare sales but also showed the activity really resonated with our target audiences - a recent survey showed 14 per cent of holiday arrivals were influenced to travel to New Zealand by the movies."

Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler said international visitor arrivals were up more than 5 per cent to 2.75 million in the year to March.

"Notably, the growth we are seeing is being driven by holiday arrivals from the key markets that our agreement enabled increased joint activity in - including China, the United Kingdom, Europe and North America as well as our new priority emerging markets India and Indonesia," Bowler said.

Air New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand will each invest $10 million in marketing in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, North America, Britain and Europe as well as increased activity in emerging markets such as India, Indonesia and Latin America.

The activity will also target high-value visitors in the lucrative premium and business events sectors.