Grid-locked Aucklanders trapped in their cars will be the target of the Whangarei Tourism Trust's publicity "2 Hours To ..." billboard campaign this summer.
Giant billboards promoting Whangarei district will go up at strategic sites throughout Auckland during November, December and January. A website, www.whangareiNZ.com will back up the billboards.
The chairman
of the trust, John Goulter, said the Auckland market was only two hours away, but held great potential for growth.
"More often than not Aucklanders drive right past us; or don't think we have anything much to offer," he said.
"By giving them something new to see and consider we believe we can change their perception of Whangarei. And once you change perceptions, you begin to change behaviour."
General manager of the trust Ros Martin said that even travel correspondents who wrote positively about the district noted its best parts were "off the beaten track", and not easily identified by people driving along State Highway One.
"We suffer from lack of visibility - both in a real sense of having the main travelling route take people past the district rather than through it - and in the sense that we have not yet created a sense of Whangarei as a destination in the same way that the Bay of Islands or Martinborough, Queenstown, Rotorua or Nelson have," she said.
Tourism was worth an estimated $90 million a year to the district, with 1.06 million New Zealanders coming here each year. This was projected to increase by more than 66,000 between now and 2010.
Auckland currently accounted for almost 60 per cent of visitors to Northland, and the key objective of the campaign was to improve their perception of the district, raise awareness of what the district had to offer, get them to visit, and to stay longer.
Ros Martin said the campaign would highlight the district's attributes of beaches, islands, landscapes, subtropical climate, bush reserves, ocean, the Poor Knights Islands, the Town Basin and harbour, the Lion Man, the city, stone walls, orchards, eco attractions, marine reserves, arts and crafts.
She said the billboards featured photographs by local photographer Diane Stoppard, and if the local tourism industry provided support, it could be extended further into the New Year.
