Last week my casual mention to Wellington’s Evening Post newspaper concerning LOTR-fan-based tours round NZ caused an unexpected media frenzy. At a time when countless bits of LOTR-related news and interviews are available, I had little idea that that Red Carpet Tours’ plans could make such an impact internationally. Since then I and my colleague on the tour venture, Vic James, have been interviewed by everybody from the BBC to Radio Pacific. If the degree of worldwide media interest in these tours is any measure of the kind of public interest we can expect to see, then we’re onto something. I expect the media do know their listeners, or they’d be out of business, so we ARE onto something.
The media attention (and requests for bookings) have caught us rather unprepared – months of planning and preparation are behind us and we have most pieces of the jigsaw puzzle sorted out, but there is still a good deal to be done before we have a complete tour package to offer to fans. Meanwhile, we’re registering expressions of interest via this flash new “newzealandonvideo” tourism information site. Look for the ‘New Zealand Film Tours’ pic on the right and click on it to contact Red Carpet Tours
The website is full of other good reasons to visit NZ too! [More]