In this Issue:

• DMCM Updates
• Local News
• Trade News
• Workshops

DMCM Updates

High time we brought you up to date with what we have been up to this year and we also need to ask for a few things from our Mackenzie tourism businesses.

The Lake Tekapo i-SITE opened in December and has been going tremendously well, exceeding expectations. At the same time the Lake Pukaki Visitor Centre has maintained the level of enquiry and the Twizel Visitor Center has been restructured and upgraded and has seen significant increases in the number of visitors.

Some statistical information for you...

Mackenzie highlights - year ended Feb 2010 compared with previous year:

 • Guest nights up 9 percent to 425,710

 • International guest nights up 11.6 percent to 236,383

 • Domestic guest nights up 5.9 percent to 189,328

 • Average length of stay down from 1.39 nights to 1.31 nights

 • Overall occupancy rate up from 34.4 percent to 35.3 percent

 • Accommodation capacity, excluding holiday parks, up 7.8 percent.

Visitor arrivals up 7% in March

International visitor arrivals jumped by 7% in March compared with the previous year, with very strong growth out of Australia (+20%), influenced by the timing of Easter and school holidays, according to Statistics New Zealand. South Korea also recorded a big increase in arrivals (+43%) compared with March 2009. Markets that performed poorly included China and the USA, with the decrease in American travellers due to fewer cruise passengers.

Visitor arrivals for the year ending March 2010 were up 4% from the March 2009 year. There were good results out of Australia (+14%, a particularly positive result given that the number of Australians travelling overseas is well down on previous years) and Hong Kong (+22%), but fewer visitors from China (-11%), Japan (-18%), Korea (-19%), the UK (-3%) and South Africa (29%).

www.mtcooknz.com

We are undertaking a review and update of our website especially in regard to the contact management system. We would appreciate it if you could please check your details on the website www.mtcooknz.com and ensure all the information is correct. 

If changes are required then please update accordingly - if you have forgotten or don't have your login details contact Prue Blake on prue.blake@xtra.co.nz

Events

We do have an Events page on the website with profiling on the home page for upcoming events. Please send a brief email summary of any events you have coming up to prue.blake@xtra.co.nz and put in the email subject line 'events for website'.  We are keen to learn about what is happening and let everyone else know as well.

Winter operators

With the winter season looming we intend to create some theming within the Lake Tekapo i-SITE focusing on our winter activities. A number of key businesses within the Mackenzie participate in a winter marketing campaign (www.mackenziewinter.co.nz).

As a part of this campaign we have been working with other tourism organisations on a winter destination campaign in Australia as well as in the domestic market. Last winter saw a significant increase in visitor numbers to the Mackenzie and we expect this to continue this year. With this in mind we would like to invite you to display your winter brochures with us.

We have a special Seasonal Brochure Display Cost for the winter season which we will commence at 1 June and run through until the end of winter (a seasonal date)

DLE $90 + gst. 

For further information please contact Nicola Thomson at Lake Tekapo i-SITE.

Research

As part of the winter marketing campaign we are participating in some research being undertaken by The New Zealand Tourism Research Institute on behalf of the Ski Areas Association of New Zealand. This is being funded by a number of parties including  Mt Dobson, Ohau, Roundhill, Destination Mt Cook Mackenzie and the Winter Marketing Group. 

This research will include an examination of both on-mountain and off-mountain spending in the areas of accommodation, transport (local and regional), food and beverage consumption, entertainment, and other tourism activities. It will also look at tourism business linkage structures and the way in which tourism links to other sectors of the economy and the basic profile of visitors to the region (demographics) to assist with future planning and marketing.

Trade famils and Media Visits

This year to date there have been a number of trade and media personnel hosted in the region and we received some great exposure for the Mackenzie both domestically and in the Australian market in particular, eg.

• an article coming up in the May edition of KiaOra the AirNZ in-flight magazine;
• The Travel Bug - a televsion programme in Australia that reaches 300,000 viewers and a potential two million worldwide.

Alps to Ocean Cycleway Update

Local News

Roundhill - Heritage Express Update

The construction of the new Heritage Express Lift is going well.  All lift towers are now in place and both the top and bottom terminals are nearing completion.   The next step will be to assemble the pulleys on the towers in preparation for the rope!  Check out the picture..

New Beginners Rope Tow

Construction has begun on a 2nd rope tow which will be positioned towards the top of the beginner’s area.  The existing rope tow will be sectioned off with the aim of using this area for smaller children to learn to ski, with the new tow for the use of everyone.

Church 75th Jubilee

The Church of the Good Shepherd is celebrating its 75th Anniversary on Saturday 22nd May. This is taking the form of a Church Service at 11.30am followed by a lunch at the Godley Hotel. 

The Church is thrilled to have the Duke of Gloucester KG GCVO, attending these functions, following in the footsteps of his father who laid the foundation stone back in 1935.

There has been a wonderful response to this celebration from people far and wide who have had a connection over the years.We are expecting large numbers and hoping for a stunning Mackenzie day.

Trade / Tourism Events

TRENZ (Tourism Rendezvous New Zealand)

is New Zealand’s largest international tourism business event. It features New Zealand’s leading providers of visitor accommodation, transport, activities and attractions, as well as destination organisers. Managed by the Tourism Industry Association New Zealand (TIA), TRENZ brings together New Zealand tourism businesses (sellers or ‘Exhibitors’) and ‘Buyers’ from New Zealand’s major and emerging visitor markets who come to purchase accommodation, transport and activities at wholesale rates, and include them in brochures and itineraries for forthcoming seasons. Once again Destination Mt Cook Mackenzie together with other Mackenzie businesses will be represented at TRENZ.

As a part of the DMCM representation at TRENZ a trade handbook is provided to all 'buyers'. This trade handbook is created from the information on the mtcooknz.com website - hence another reason to ensure your information is up to date and correct.

These trade buyers are always interested in hearing about new products or any changes /  developments so please let us know about these. Phil Brownie or Mandy Gillies will follow this up over the next couple of weeks or please feel free to email Phil.

RTO and ITOC Day

Regional Tourism Organisations (RTO) and Inbound Tour Operators Council (ITOC)Trade Day. This is held in the second week of May over two days in Auckland.  DMCM will be represented at this meeting by CCT who will meet with front line staff, who are ITOC Members, agents selling domestic travel and AA Travel Centres.

Mt Cook Mackenzie Official Visitor Guide (OVG)

It was great to see the support we had for the 2010 OVG. This year we are hoping to get it into production earlier and have it printed by November and ready for the busy summer season. Some of the key points re the OVG are reiterated below and we shall be in touch with you about August / September.

Each Regional Tourism Authority produces a Visitor Guide for their region and each of the Tourism New Zealand affiliated i-SITES is required to carry a stock of these. In addition to National i-SITES other distribution is extensive and covers all major recognised distribution points both in the region and throughout New Zealand.

We know the Mt Cook Mackenzie Guide is extensively used - our edition from last year, with a print run of 55000, was completely used up. You have seen the visitor statistics and will have seen what magnificent progress we are making as a region in terms of growing our visitor numbers against previous year and versus the rest of New Zealand and the rest of Canterbury.

To continue this growth and even just to hold our own in this competitive market it is vital we continue to work together to promote our region as a destination.

The best way for all of us to grow our business is to get people to the Mackenzie ie. we compete as a destination against other regions for all businesses. The more people we get to come here as a destination ie. to stay, the better the shops, restaurants and all businesses do.

So...the more appealing we make our region look - the more activities there are, the greater the variety and the wider the range of accommodation, the more likely we are to attract people - to do that we all need to work together to create an outstanding regional product which within it has outstanding individual activities, food and accommodation options.

Rugby World Cup

DMCM is in touch with and receives regular updates from the Rugby World Cup Management Group, TNZ and CCT to ensure that as a region we can take advantage of any opportunities.

Workshops

Tourism Marketing Bootcamp -  Friday 14 May 2010

The Tourism Marketing Bootcamp is an intensive one-day 10-hour programme aimed at people who are responsible for marketing a tourism business. 

This successful programme is back by popular demand and covers all aspects of marketing a tourism business. Come away motivated and with a clear marketing action plan! 

Click here for more information: http://www.strategiesmarketing.co.nz/files/Marketing-bootcamp-14-May-2010.pdf

 Or phone: Marijke Dunselman, SMARTraining:

Domestic tourism is BIG

New domestic tourism research provides in-depth information on how to better market to domestic tourists. Released by the Tourism Ministry, the research investigates the motivations behind taking a holiday, segments the domestic market, and provides practical ways for marketers to apply the research. Domestic tourism contributes $12.4 billion a year to the economy. Read the research.

Free workshops - domestic tourism marketing

The Tourism Ministry is holding free workshops around the country covering marketing opportunities that exist for regions and for individual tourism operators within the domestic tourism market. Click here for more information and to register (places are limited).

We will be back with another update in a few weeks. In the meantime do remember we would love to hear from you with any news and views you would like to share or any updates about your business.

All the best from Phil and the team at DMCM