Getting a personal Maori welcome from Paul Rec, Creative Resort Marketing;
Marc Mulcahy, Nomad Safaris; Brad Patterson, The Helicopter Line; Sean Marsh, Te Puia; Ross Grundy, InterCity Group & Henry Horne, Hobbiton Movie Set Tours
Our Kiwi hosts
TIME Unlimited Tours' Ceillhe Sperath & Sally Jackson from the Art Deco Centre
Christina Hartigan, Into The Vineyard (in orange) with the team from Mason Horvath: Matthew Quinton, Dean Horvath, Laurie Horvath & Tom Bartholomew
Maybe I’m biased but I like people from New Zealand. Could it be because they know that a way to one’s heart is through their wines?
At the recent Tourism New Zealand event, 12 companies flew into Vancouver to meet with local travel agents. Held in an intimate meeting room at the Rosewood Hotel Georgia, guests sipped New Zealand wines (but of course) while they got the latest updates from the Kiwi supplier hosts.
The reason for their trip? According to Gregg Anderson, TNZ’s General Manager – Americas & Europe, during TRENZ (the country’s main travel trade show in New Zealand) several suppliers specifically told TNZ that they wanted to head to North America to promote themselves as they are seeing more guests from this part of the world and feel we have even more potential.
Anderson says New Zealand has been seeing strong numbers from the Canadian market. “We would like to reach the 50,000 mark for arrivals this year,” he told me. About 1 in 5 North Americans say that the “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” movies have influenced their decision to visit New Zealand. The famous movie set venue at Hobbiton, has welcomed 300,000 visitors over the past 2 years. Talk about the power of film!
On the cruise front, 1 in 6 tourists from here sail on cruise ships around the country. On average, cruises around New Zealand last about 8 days, with overnight port stops. Anderson finds that agents now want to sell more pre- and post-cruise options, with stays in Queenstown, Auckland and Rotorua. He says the scenery is similar to sailing the Inside Passage to Alaska from Vancouver.
The Kiwi suppliers came from all around New Zealand including Art Deco Trust’s Sally Jackson who came dressed in that period and Ceillhe Sperath, from TIME Unlimited Tours, a company that offers indigenous tours in Auckland. Mark Rose, CEO, The Rees Lakefront Residences along the shores of Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown, revealed that the luxury Lakefront Residences featuring 2 storey, 3 bedroom units are due to be completed by mid-2015. Canadian snowbirds take note...
All presentations done, our hosts had a surprise up their sleeves. Several members of the delegation (who were espied secretly rehearsing outside the function room earlier) stepped forward and performed the haka, led by Sean Marsh from Te Puia. Kia Ora to our hosts for this unexpected treat.
