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| Key Facts About the Giant Rugby Ball
Key Facts About the Giant Rugby Ball
The Promotion
•The Ball has been installed next to the Tokyo Tower and will be open to the public from 28 October to 3 November 2009. Read the launch release.
•The Ball is a temporary venue, open to the public free of charge, that uses the latest in audio-visual technology to take visitors on a journey through New Zealand. This virtual voyage showcases the country’s tourist offering - incredible natural history and rich cultural heritage to contemporary New Zealand culture
•During the period it is open in Tokyo, the Ball will host a series of public and private events celebrating New Zealand, showcasing New Zealand cuisine and promoting New Zealand as a place to visit, work and do business with.
•The Ball last appeared in London in 2008 between London’s City Hall and London’s famous Tower Bridge and Paris during the 2007 Rugby World Cup where it stood under the Eiffel Tower.
•The Ball has gained huge exposure for New Zealand as the next host of the Rugby World Cup in 2011 as an estimated 300 million people around the world have seen media coverage of the Ball.
•During the 15 days the Ball was in Paris, is achieved a potential world-wide media reach of over 137 million people while 25,000 people went inside the Ball and saw the show.
•During the 8 days the Ball stood in London, 7,500 people went inside and experienced the AV display and an estimated 200 million people around the world saw media coverage of the Ball.
The Ball
•The Ball itself is a temporary inflatable venue that measures 25 metres long, 17 metres wide (at its widest point) and 13 metres high and can hold up to 220 people.
• A key feature of the Ball is a 10-minute audiovisual show that transforms the interior of the Ball into a variety of New Zealand environments from the depths of the ocean, beaches, volcanoes and bush walks, to rugby games.
•The venue takes five days to construct
•The air system works by two air pumps expelling 8,000 litres per second
•A revolving door allows the movement of people in and out of the Ball while maintaining the interior air pressure.
•The Ball can house an estimated 600,000 conventional rugby balls
•The Ball was designed and constructed by New Zealand’s Inside Out productions, who were also responsible for the three-storey Louis Vuitton suitcase that toured the world for Louis Vuitton’s 150th anniversary celebrations
•In October 2008 the Ball was awarded a Gold Award in the Design Institute of New Zealand's BeST Design Awards
> Watch a time lapse video on YouTube of the Ball being inflated in Tokyo
Japanese Tourism Statistics• Japan is New Zealand’s fifth largest market for visitor arrivals.
• In the year to September 2009, New Zealand welcomed 80,000 Japanese visitors.
• It is also one of the highest spending markets, with total expenditure reaching $422 million in the year to June 2009.
• On a per-person basis, Japanese are our highest spending visitors with average holiday spending at $4,698 per trip, compared with Australia at ($2,372), the USA ($3,552) and the UK ($4,006).
• Arrivals from Japan have been declining since 2004, as a result of the weaker Japanese economy and exchange rate, because of a change in travel habits (younger Japanese travellers tend to spend money on other things, like clothes and electronic goods) and because of an increase in cheaper short-haul travel within Asia.
> Read the Japan Market Guide online and learn more about the Japanese market and Tourism New Zealand's work
> Read the release about the Ball's official opening
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