More than 300 Ruapehu season passes have been sold in Australia during a new campaign to get Aussies skiing in New Zealand.
Tourism New Zealand is promoting Ruapehu and Queenstown skifields in the Australian market and the central North Island region is doing its part to bring Australian skiers here -
including a new transtasman ski pass.
Ruapehu Alpine Lifts marketing co-ordinator Tracey Ha said this was the first time season passes for NZ skifields had been sold exclusively in Australia and it had proved very successful.
"The passes launched in April at A$295 [$387] an adult and A$175 [$229] per child - that's a whole season pass for the cost of three days' skiing in Australia."
Ha said Ruapehu was building on Tourism New Zealand's campaign encouraging Aussie skiers to come to New Zealand. The high profile of the Queenstown ski fields was a barrier to getting Australians to come to the central North Island and Ha said the latest campaign would help raise awareness of what Ruapehu had to offer.
Because the transtasman season pass was such a new idea, nobody knew quite what response to expect, but Central Park's Rhys Arrowsmith said more than 300 passes were sold in the two-month window, which closed on May 31.
"It's a very competitive travel time to fly Sydney to Rotorua then drive down to Ruapehu compared to driving from Sydney to the likes of Thredbo - and it's cheaper."
Arrowsmith said the campaign was good for other tourism sectors in the region as few people would ski for more than three or four days out of a seven day ski holiday and the Central Park area offered plenty of alternative activities if the weather was not suitable for skiing.
Visit Ruapehu's Trish May said the region's tourism organisation was selling the destination around ski holidays as part of a joint venture with the ski fields, Rotorua Airport and Destination Rotorua Tourism Marketing.
"We are bringing people in through Rotorua Airport to Rotorua, Taupo and Ruapehu with an online call to action."
Turoa is due to open on June 25, coinciding with the Mardi Gras. Whakapapa is scheduled to open on July 2.
