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Visitor Satisfaction
Each year Tourism New Zealand commissions independent research to gain a sense of how satisfied our international visitors are with the holiday experience New Zealand provides. Making sure that international visitors have an enjoyable experience is the key to the future of the tourism industry. Visitors that have the experience of a lifetime while on holiday in New Zealand are more likely to recommend the destination to other people or return for a second visit themselves. Overall experience During 2008/09 visitors from Japan enjoyed reasonably high levels of satisfaction with their holiday in New Zealand. Overall, they rated their holiday experience 8.8 out of 10, which is consistent with previous years. Most Japanese visitors (91 per cent) said they were likely to recommend New Zealand as a holiday destination. Visitors from Japan said they were more likely to speak or write positively about New Zealand when speaking to others in person (95 per cent); when sending emails, instant messages or letters to individuals (49 per cent); or sharing their opinions in online forums such as blogs, discussions or social networking websites (8 per cent). What drives overall visitor satisfaction? Tourism New Zealand’s Visitor Experience Monitor measures which aspects of a visit to New Zealand have the most influence on overall visitor satisfaction. The visitor experience is broken down into seven areas: • Accommodation • Food and Beverage • Internal Transport • Activities • i-SITE Visitor Centres • Environment • Safety Statistical modelling is used to identify which of these aspects are more important to visitors and have greater influence on overall visitor satisfaction. Each area is then broken down into more detailed sub-areas (such as price and quality of service) and statistical modelling is used to identify how satisfied visitors are with these sub-areas and how much importance is placed on each sub-area. Accommodation Among the seven areas mentioned above, accommodation had one of the lowest overall satisfaction ratings among visitors from Japan. With a rating of 7.9 out of 10, the Japanese rated accommodation lower than the average satisfaction rating across all markets (8.4 out of 10). With regard to accommodation, visitors from Japan rated price a low 7.5 out of 10, quality of facilities and amenities 7.8 and quality of service 7.7. Food and beverage Food and beverage was the area with the lowest satisfaction for visitors from Japan. The overall satisfaction score for food and beverage was 7.7 out of 10. This score was lower than satisfaction with food and beverage across all markets (8.1 out of 10). Within the area of food and beverage, visitors rated quality of food and beverage 7.8 out of 10 and quality of service 7.7. Satisfaction with price was the lowest rating aspect of food and beverage at 7.5 out of 10. Transport Overall, Japanese visitors rated their satisfaction with transport in New Zealand as 7.9 out of 10, lower than the average across all markets (8.4). Satisfaction with price (rated 7.2 out of 10) was lower than other aspects of transport, including comfort, safety and reliability (7.7) and quality of service (7.7). The Japanese commonly travel New Zealand on coach tours, but their satisfaction with this mode of transport is lower than other markets (8.0 compared to 8.5). Activities Overall, Japanese visitors rate their satisfaction with activities at 8.6 out of 10. This is quite high but lower than the average across all markets (8.9). Visitors from Japan had consistently lower satisfaction across all aspects of activities in New Zealand, compared with other markets. They rated quality of the actual activity 8.2 out of 10 and quality of service 7.8 out of 10. Once again, satisfaction with price was rated lowest at 7.5 out of 10. These consistently lower levels of satisfaction suggest that improvement is needed in all aspects of activities in order to increase the satisfaction of Japanese visitors. Setting realistic expectations of what the activity entails, the levels of service visitors will receive and the price may help to improve overall satisfaction levels. The New Zealand environment New Zealand’s environment is the most satisfying aspect of a New Zealand holiday for Japanese visitors. The overall satisfaction score of 9.0 out of 10 was higher than the score across all other markets (8.9). Visitors from Japan are highly satisfied New Zealand’s natural landscapes and scenery (rated 9.4 out of 10), our clean and unpolluted environment (8.9) and un-crowded spaces (8.8). Satisfaction with the weather rated lower at 7.0 out of 10, alongside our vibrant urban atmosphere at 7.2. Safety Japanese visitors rated their personal safety in New Zealand at 8.4 out of 10, which is reasonably high but lower than the average across all markets of 8.7. Compared to all markets, Japanese visitors are less satisfied with road safety (7.8 out of 10), personal safety in urban areas (8.0) and safety standards of activities (8.2). Holiday planning The majority of visitors from the Japan (69 per cent) decided what they would do on their holiday after they had made the decision to come to New Zealand. Conversely, nearly a third (31 per cent) of visitors from Japan decided the type of holiday they wanted, and then chose New Zealand as their destination. The factors that had the most influence on Japanese visitors' decisions to come to New Zealand were the natural scenery (31 per cent) or having friends or family here (20 per cent), Most visitors from the Japan booked their trip to New Zealand less than three months in advance of arriving here. Thirty per cent booked between one and two months before arrival, 20 per cent booked between two and three months before and 17 per cent booked two to four weeks before.
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