Sly marketing, a successful fantasy film and sheer remoteness have consipired to help New Zealand trump Australia in attracting international tourists. New Zealand defied worldwide trends and boasted a 3.8% increase in arrivals in the 12 months to June. [More]
Month: September 2002
Sly marketing, a successful fantasy film and sheer remoteness have consipired to help New Zealand trump Australia in attracting international tourists. New Zealand defied worldwide trends and boasted a 3.8% increase in arrivals in the 12 months to June. About two million international visitors are expected here next year – half the country’s population. While New Zealand seems immune to the fallout from the war on terror and the gobal economic slowdown, arrivals to Australia over the same period have dropped 6% compared with the strong 2000-01 Olympic year.
In the 12 months to September, international viistor numbers to Austalia are expected to have declined by 8%.
Australia’s Tourism Task Force chief executive Christopher Brown said Australia had much to learn from New Zealand. He said New Zealand made a huge investment in pushing its successful 100% Pure brand.
“I think when the world is looking for something clean and fresh they have done very well out of that,” he said.
“They have also been buoyed by the Lord of the Rings phenomena (sic) and were selling New Zealand as Middle Earth (sic).”
Mr Brown said the absolute remoteness of New Zealand had worked to its advantage over the past 12 months.
“Their timing was beautiful because you can get to New Zealand and get away from the worries of the world.
“There has to be some consolation on being the most remote place of Earth,” he said.
The Lord of the Rings is believed to be one reason for a 21% jump in British arrivals here.
Ivan writes: Let me tell you , Warner is always saying they aren’t sure whether releasing an extended version down here, and they make sure to get it clear on their official brazillian site, it is a marketing strategy, they want to sell the theatrical version to huge numbers. [More]
Ivan writes: Let me tell you (in regards to this article No Extended DVD For Latin America? from September 9th, 2002), Warner is always saying they aren’t sure whether releasing an extended version down here, and they make sure to get it clear on their official brazillian site, it is a marketing strategy, they want to sell the theatrical version to huge numbers. About the translation and subtitles that is BS, many films that failed in our cinemas are released in DVD and everybody knows they won’t sell (sometimes they put them attached to magazines for US$5,00 like Blair Witch 2), just to tell you, they did the same thing with the Matrix, they released the Matrix Revisited more than one year behind the normal version, pretty in time when it was released internationally, I want to assure everyone that the extended version will be in stores any other way!
Maltawingiel sends along more news about the Alan Lee appearance in NYC later this month (Read Live In NYC? Wanna Meet Alan Lee? from September 5th, 2002). [More]
Charles writes: I just got this note yesterday US east coast time regarding the Red Carpet NZ TTT premier tour (Read LOTR tourism in NZ gets going from July 11th 2002). The conversion factor from the NZ dollars noted to US is to multiply by about 0.478.
We now have the final price for the Premiere Lord of the Rings tour for this December. [More]