What's Happening

Tourism New Zealand is targeting the youth and backpacker market with a new campaign urging them to "Go All The Way" to New Zealand.

Younger travellers and backpackers continue to travel during the economic downturn, showing their resilience as a sector. This campaign was to ensure that New Zealand was on the list of places they wanted to visit.

Many backpackers from the UK and Europe go as far as Australia in their gap-year, but we want to challenge them to complete the journey and ‘Go All The Way’ by coming down to New Zealand.

The focus for the new campaign will be the Northern Hemisphere markets, including the UK and Europe, ahead of the busy summer peak travel months.

The new campaign will run predominantly online and is kicking off with a campaign on social networking website Bebo, being run in partnership with global entertainment company Endemol.

Endemol is creating an online reality TV show - The Gap Year: Challenge New Zealand - that will follow five Bebo users as they travel around New Zealand taking part in challenges. The Bebo community will be encouraged to vote for activities and winners as the competition progresses. Competitors will also keep blogs and online diaries. www.bebo.com/thegapyear

The Campaign

• It will run in two main ways: there will be a focus on youth and backpacker travellers from Northern Hemisphere markets before they start travelling; a second focus will target the East Coast of Australia to convince travellers to make the last leg of the trip to New Zealand.
• The campaign will run predominantly online, making use of social media.
• As peer-to-peer recommendation is the strongest motivator for this group. Tourism New Zealand is working with entertainment company Endemol to create an reality TV show - The Gap Year 2009. www.bebo.com/thegapyear
• Competitors will audition through the Bebo page to win five trips to New Zealand. While in New Zealand they will be followed by a film crew and daily updates of their activities will be posted online. The Bebo community will vote on elements of the competition to decide the overall winner and also win a trip to New Zealand to meet the finalists.
• Competitors will also post daily blogs, diaries and updates via Twitter and Facebook.
• Tourism New Zealand will also work closely with operators in the UK and Europe (including STA Travel) and with the New Zealand Backpacker Network in Australia to promote travel under the "Go All The Way" banner.

Campaign Dates

• The search for contestants for The Gap Year: Challenge New Zealand competition started on 14 September on Bebo. The project will run through to late November, early December.
• On October 4, Tourism New Zealand will run four weeks of television commercials in the UK on television and ‘Video On Demand’. These will include advertisements targeting youth travellers, as well as other audiences. Online ads targeting youth travellers also commence and run to end November.
• During October and November, Tourism New Zealand will run further campaigns in Germany, The Netherlands and Scandinavia alongside those in the UK.
• During October and November, Tourism New Zealand will stage a promotion on the East Coast of Australia.

For further information contact:

Cas Carter, corporate communications, on 021 915 410