Hawke's Bay tourism website up for award

Annie Dundas, Hawke's Bay Tourism general manager. Photo / File

A regionwide approach to marketing tourism has led to a new regional tourism website project making the finals of the New Zealand Tourism Awards.

Hawke's Bay's new visitor website is managed by Hawke's Bay Tourism, in partnership with Central Hawke's Bay District, Hastings District, Napier City, and Wairoa District councils, and presents Hawke's Bay as a single region made up of complementary experiences.

Hawke's Bay Tourism General Manager Annie Dundas said the recognition demonstrates the value of taking a collaborative approach to marketing Hawke's Bay as a visitor destination.

"By directing prospective visitors to a single point – www.hawkesbaynz.com – we are able to present a more coherent and cohesive Hawke's Bay visitor story.

"Each main centre still has its own section on the website to showcase their tourism experiences – but we've even gone as far as calling them Hawke's Bay's Neighbourhoods to ensure prospective visitors understand we are one united region to be explored."

In the period since go-live at the start of November 2017, the site hosted about 20 per cent more visitors than in the same period the previous year.

Dundas said particularly impressive growth came from those people searching from - Wellington (up 90per cent), Hamilton (up 48 per cent), and Taupo up (30 per cent) - areas within the important drive market for a Hawke's Bay holiday.

"The key innovations of the new website, the Hawke's Bay Playlist, has also proven to be popular, with more than 1500 already created by visitors to the site. Playlists are curated lists of favourite content from throughout the website, whether that be tourism operator listings, natural attractions, events, or even articles.

"As well as visitors creating Hawke's Bay Playlists to plan their holidays, we're also seeing locals preparing Playlists for visiting friends and family, as well as tourism businesses creating Playlists to send to arriving guests – all of which encourages visitors to stay longer and do more.

"Playlists can also be mapped, shared via Facebook and email, and you can even request help from an i-Site Visitor Centre to book a Playlist – we're making planning and booking a Hawke's Bay holiday as fun and easy as possible."

Ms Dundas adds that the website would be continually evolving.

Hawke's Bay businesses looking to benefit from the region's growing visitor economy, currently valued at $639million annually, were encouraged to create a listing on hawkesbaynz.com.

"With more than 350,000 website sessions in the past 12 months, there's no better digital platform to profile your business among people looking to visit Hawke's Bay."

The New Zealand Tourism Awards winners will be announced at an event in Christchurch on September 6.