Rotorua man leads tourism doco for Chinese market

Plans are well under way for a new 12-part documentary series promoting New Zealanders' connection to the land, the spirit of Manaakitanga and adventure tourism.
Local Nag Uri o te Ngahere Trust chairman and ACE Journeys partner Garry Watson is leading the Building Cultural Bridges - Tauraheretia nga Tini Tika project, getting operators and investors behind the series to promote New Zealand in China.
"The project is now fairly well advanced and we have 10 locations picked out, from Northland down to Stewart Island."
Watson said each programme blended adventure travel show with cultural documentary - showing potential high-end travellers what they could do in New Zealand, how they will be welcomed and how the New Zealand culture could connect to their own.
"This journey leads to the Heartland of Aotearoa and of our people. It is a celebration of what makes us uniquely different, but also what joins us to make us one."
Key themes include celebrating the connection between the land and the indigenous tangata whenua, sharing the ecological values and unique environment of the country, experiencing the Kiwi lifestyle and getting a taste of the adventures on offer here.
"This is a unique opportunity to blend three key messages within a travel documentary for television - culture, ecology and adventure - and how they can be experienced in a manner seldom found elsewhere."
Manaakitanga will be a common theme flowing through the 12-part series, with guests brought to New Zealand to experience this first hand from operators who live by the ethos of defining their own mana through they way they care for and nurture their guests.
"The resulting film will be endearing, unique, genuinely Kiwi and empowering."
Watson said the project was already being pitched to television networks and media outlets in key markets, offering them the opportunity to collaborate in the production of the documentaries as well as screening the series. Representatives are being invited to visit New Zealand to meet the producers and visit some of the filming locations.
"These locations include some of the most visually stunning settings in New Zealand. Others are secluded places where people live a largely traditional life. Still others celebrate some of the most exhilarating adventure one can have anywhere in the world."
Nga Uri o te Ngahere Trust is collating expressions of interest around hosting and Watson said there had been a very positive response from tourism organisations and individual operators he had spoken to.
These include a lot of smaller and family-run operators he said did not usually get a chance to contribute to such projects.