What's Happening

Tourism New Zealand’s mobile studio has successfully completed its first week on the road and the ‘Have Your Say’ YouTube channel has already clocked up almost 3,000 views.

The mobile studio is the next phase in Tourism New Zealand’s ‘What Do You Say UK?’ marketing campaign, which launched in the UK last September. But the initiative is reaching more than just the friends and relatives of visitors from the UK.

Over 120 videos have been recorded by travellers from Australia, the US, UK, Japan, Germany, Canada and beyond, with some videos being viewed as many as 242 times.

The mobile studio began its nationwide tour in Auckland last week, travelling west to Piha beach and continuing up to the Northland region. It will move on to the Coromandel this week, where it will spend three days filming before reaching the Bay of Plenty on Sunday.

The visitor ‘raves’ recorded in the mobile studio - a distinctively branded converted shipping container on the back of a flat-bed truck - are emailed out immediately to friends and family, and then broadcast on the ‘Have Your Say’ YouTube channel.

Tourism New Zealand is working with regional tourism organisations to maximise the visibility of the mobile studio as it makes its way around the country. It will visit around 40 towns between January and April with the aim of recording around 3,000 ‘raves’ from overseas visitors.

Dive! Tutukaka Marketing Manager Kate Malcolm says tourists were very excited about recording their stories when the mobile studio visited the township of Tutukaka last week.

She says that during the past few years tourists have become more computer savvy and the internet is now one of the main ways visitors to New Zealand keep in touch with others around the world. "It is a great idea because this is how tourists keep in contact with friends and family."

With international visitor numbers expected to be down by 10 per cent this summer, it is hoped the initiative will help keep New Zealand’s profile high in the UK, New Zealand’s second largest tourist market.

Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive George Hickton says, "With around 900 million people still travelling worldwide, there are enough people to fill New Zealand many times over. We just need to make sure we keep building our share of those travellers by keeping New Zealand’s profile up so that people wanting a holiday will think of New Zealand.

"If every clip filmed in the mobile studio is viewed by 10 friends and family back home, and if 3000 clips are filmed that’s thirty thousand messages about New Zealand sent to our key markets - a very cost-effective form of marketing," he says.

After visiting Coromandel Town on Thursday and tourist hot spots Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach on Friday and Sunday, the studio will spend some time in the Bay of Plenty, visiting Mt Maunganui (25 January) and Tauranga (26 January) before moving on to Rotorua.

> See recent coverage of the mobile studio on stuff.co.nz
> Read more about the ‘Have Your Say’ mobile studio.
> Read key facts about the mobile studio.

Check out more videos on www.newzealand.com/travel/uk-ireland/.

A draft schedule for the studio is available here.