TODAY “Can’t Wait” to Visit New Zealand

Date: 19 June 2009

The presenters of Australia’s TODAY show are getting excited about their upcoming visit to New Zealand.

On the show’s website presenter Karl Stefanovic writes that he can’t wait to get back to New Zealand and experience Queenstown in full ‘Winter Festival’ swing.

Karl Stefanovic is one of five TODAY show presenters that will broadcast live from New Zealand on 29 and 30 June.

The landmark Australian breakfast TV show airs daily between 5.30am and 9am and is watched by 800,000 Australians.

As well as the two-day broadcast from Queenstown, TODAY weatherman Steven Jacobs and reporter Mike Dalton will present live broadcasts every half hour between 22 and 26 June. Starting in Northland, the pair will move down the country to Auckland, Marlborough and the West Coast.

"We'll get a taste of what a fantastic place New Zealand is next week, with Mike Dalton and Steve Jacobs acting as pioneers and travelling the whole country to show us the most beautiful, most exciting, and quirkiest things the Kiwis can offer," writes Karl Stefanovic.

Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive George Hickton says the organisation is delighted to be working with key partner Qantas to bring the Channel 9 TODAY show crew to New Zealand. Qantas is providing all flights for the presenters and crew.

"Tourism New Zealand runs a highly-successful international media programme which brings hundreds of journalists to New Zealand each year, but it is a first for us to get this degree of reach and penetration over such an extended period of time," says Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive George Hickton.

"With the support of Qantas this project will boost New Zealand's profile as a holiday destination right across Australia."

Tourism New Zealand has worked with the TODAY show presenters to pre-record travel segments on 12 New Zealand regions, which will be shown during the two-day New Zealand special.

The regions covered include Northland, Auckland, Wellington, Taupo, Rotorua, Christchurch, Fiordland, Dunedin and Queenstown.

"If you've ever wanted to see Georgie in a tank, Cam scared out of his wits, Lisa getting her feet wet, or what Richard's hair looked like back in the day, then you won't want to miss it," writes Karl Stefanovic.

It is the first time TODAY has broadcast the show from outside Australia since 2005, when it went to the UK.

In March, Tourism New Zealand gained an additional $2.5 million of Government money for Australian promotional work. The TODAY show’s visit to New Zealand has come as a result of some of that money being made available for public relations work.

The larger portion of this funding has been used to run increased advertising activity in this key market over autumn and winter.

Marketing activity in Australia has been stepped up since December, when the global downturn began to impact arrivals from other major markets. Australia is New Zealand’s biggest market providing 992,674 arrivals in the year to May.

> See what the TODAY show have been up to in New Zealand

> Read more about Tourism New Zealand's activities in Australia in the Australia market guide.

Source: Tourism New Zealand Feature