Latest News from Tourism New Zealand

Tourism New Zealand has recently welcomed Kevin Bowler to the team as Chief Executive.

After spending the summer break exploring New Zealand's toursim hot spots with his family, he is now keen to get his feet under the desk in his new role.

"Welcome back and best wishes for the new year. For me, it has been a long-awaited start to my new role as Chief Executive at Tourism New Zealand.

2010 promises to be an important year for the New Zealand tourism industry and for Tourism New Zealand.

The industry is recovering from last year's outbreak of Influenza A (H1N1) and the global economic downturn which resulted in a softening of visitor arrivals, though the figures show that New Zealand fared better than many countries..."

Read more on our website

A campaign targeting backpackers and challenging them to 'Go All The Way' to New Zealand has stepped up a notch in 2010 with a series of events and promotions.

A new 'Go All the Way' website - www.goalltheway.to - was launched in January, and paid online advertising has begun in the United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.

Another part of the campaign saw the start of a road show on Sunday 17 January at the infamous Cheeky Monkeys bar in Byron Bay, the first of a series of weekly parties over an eight week period on Australia's east coast.

Read more on our website

Two New Zealanders, two Americans and an Argentinian have been selected as the five finalists in Tourism New Zealand's 'Your Big Break' short film competition.

Close to 1,100 entries were recieved. Over 250,000 visitors watched videos, read scripts and voted for their favourites on the competition website, which had more than two million total views between 31 November and 15 January.

Entrants were asked to submit an idea for a three-minute short film that captured the spirit of New Zealand as the youngest country on Earth.

The five finalists will film on location in New Zealand over the next three weeks, with Sir Peter Jackson choosing his favourite short film - the competition winner - in the last week of February.

Read more and check out the finalists' entries on our website

Prime Minister and Tourism Minister John Key last week announced details of a joint venture marketing fund that could result in a NZD10 million marketing boost in Australia.

John Key announced that eight groups will share NZD5 million to market their regions.

This fund will be matched with Regional Tourism Organisations (RTO) and private sector funding to create an unprecedented opportunity to create a NZD10 million marketing fund, which will be particularly focused on Australia.

Read the full story online

Tourism New Zealand welcomes two new members to its Board at the start of February - Sam Morgan and Richard Leggat.

Sam Morgan is best known as the founder of auction website Trade Me. He was CEO at Trade Me until 2008, following sale of the business to Australian media company Fairfax in 2006.

Richard Leggat has a varied background across business, marketing and e-commerce. He is currently employed in a sales and marketing role for a leading provider of e-commerce solutions.

John Barrett has been reappointed as a board member for a second three-year term.

The Board of Tourism New Zealand would like to thank departing board members Susie Johnstone and Paul Bingham for the contributions they have made to the organisation over the past few years. Both have served on Tourism New Zealand's Board since December 2003.

Read more about the new board members on our website

Pictured: New Tourism New Zealand board members Sam Morgan (top) and Richard Leggat (bottom)

Tourism Auckland will launch a series of free and informative workshops in February to help tourism operators get their businesses ready for Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2011.

The six areas of focus for the Visitor Ready Workshops are designed to assist tourism operators, of all types and sizes from across the region, to gain maximum benefit from the event while contributing to a great visitor experience.

Workshops will kick-off on 10 February and run until the end of March, with each session offered in three locations across Auckland.

Find out more and register online

Tourism New Zealand's flagship trade event, Kiwi Link, will be held in Singapore in October 2010.

The event will provide opportunities for both new and experienced tourism operators to develop relationships with travel sellers from China, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

Find out more and register online