Get ready to spend, others tell Auckland

By Wayne Thompson

Tourism chiefs believe Auckland will have to throw lots of money into its cheeky Jafa campaign if it is to achieve a significant increase in visitors to the city.

The campaign was launched yesterday with a budget of $900,000, spread over two winter seasons. Ratepayer-financed Tourism Auckland will contribute 45 per cent of the money.

The rest will come from its support base of 220 organisations.

The chief executive of Tourism Auckland, Lance Bickford, said he hoped the campaign would draw at least 13,000 visitors who would not otherwise have come here this winter, on top of 60,000 others who would come anyway.

The campaign's success would be measured by the number of requests on the 0800AUCKLAND phone line for vouchers and information, and by bookings.

Tourism Nelson chief executive Paul Davis yesterday agreed with Mr Bickford that Auckland was a good product to market, but said lots of money was needed for a campaign, to keep putting its message before people.

He said the "Send Yourself to Wellington" campaign was a shining example of a promotion that changed people's perceptions of a place, filled empty hotel beds and brought high-spending visitors into town.

The chief executive of Totally Wellington, Trevor Hall, said that campaign started with $500,000 in 1996, and in three years had cost $3 million.

He said the campaign had changed Wellington, making it a weekend leisure destination and taking its hotels from an average weekend occupancy rate of 30 to 40 per cent to 60 to 70 per cent.

Some of the monthly campaigns led a thousand people to request information.

The campaign's success had just brought an extra $500,000 from the Wellington City Council, bringing the council's total contribution to $1.5 million.

The campaign for 1999-2000 would cost $2 million. Much of it would be spent on advertising in the New Zealand Herald, on direct mail marketing and on television advertising.

Totally Wellington had built up a client list of 15,000 people, some of who m visited the capital up to five times a year.

Research showed that campaigns boosted foot traffic in the city's retail centre by 100 per cent at weekends, and that visitors' average weekend spending was $700 a couple.

Restaurants, shops, theatres and entertainment places reported growth in patronage at weekends.

Mr Hall said the most important element in any campaign was not so much the catchy slogan as giving people the right information.

"It took us many years and a lot of money and research to get it right."