Christchurch Mayor, Bob Parker is calling on Australia to
lend the New Zealand city its Big Things in the first phase of a new campaign
being launched today to encourage Aussies to return to Christchurch.
Having seen a significant decline in holidaymakers since the
February 2011 earthquake, Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism is launching the
two phase campaign to put the city back on the radar for visitors from
Australia - Christchurch's largest international visitor market.
"We've got a major issue in Christchurch at the moment,
said Parker. "We've got tourists flocking here from all over the world but
where are the Australians?"
The first phase of the campaign is designed to get
Australians talking about Christchurch again in a positive way.
Over a series of three video episodes, Parker undertakes a
whirlwind tour of Australia visiting cult iconic Big Things including the Big
Merino in Goulburn, the Big Chook in Mount Vernon, and Queensland's Big
Pineapple, Big Macadamia and Big Cow.
Calling on each town's mayors and city officials, Parker
asks them to sign a Memorandum of Support to lend Christchurch their Big Thing
to help increase the number of Australian tourists visiting the city.
"Australia is a big country, full of people with big
hearts and big ideas and big pineapples. They're crazy about big stuff. So we decided to ask if we could borrow some
of these icons and put them around Christchurch to make our Aussie mates feel
more at home in our place," suggests the Mayor in the first of the video
episodes.
The Big Things video episodes documenting the Mayor's visit
to Australia will tell the story on popular digital sites. This is being
supported by an open letter of appeal in Sydney and Melbourne newspapers today.
Capitalising on the expected increase in conversations about
Christchurch that will come from the first phase of the campaign, the second
phase - the Discovery Stream - will launch in October. This breakthrough initiative is designed to
showcase the actual 'big things' that are happening in Christchurch right now.
The Discovery Stream, which will be found at
reimagined.christchurchnz.com, is a micro-site that will incorporate real-time
content from visitors and residents documenting what they are seeing in the
city.
The Stream pulls from Twitter and Instagram to uncover what
people are doing and saying, in and around Christchurch at any hour of the day
whether that is sitting in one of the new pop up bars, attending the IceFest
event or shopping in the Re:start shipping container mall. People are encouraged to take photos of
Christchurch, tag it with #chch, and share it on Twitter and Instagram, in
addition to uploading images on Facebook.
A grassroots campaign will be launched simultaneously in the
city through tourism operators to encourage visitors to share their images.
To support the campaign Jetstar is offering a special sale
for Australians to fly from Sydney to Christchurch for just $119 one way and
Melbourne to Christchurch for just $129 one way. The sale will run from
September 26th (12:01am) until September 30th (11:59pm), with sale fares valid
for travel from October 24th to December 5th 2012.
Jetstar Australia and New Zealand chief executive David Hall
said the airline is pleased to be part of the Christchurch Reimagined campaign.
"We're looking forward to bringing more Australians
through the city in the coming months and building on the one million passenger
movements Jetstar carried in and out of Christchurch in the last financial
year."
For video coverage of Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker's visit
please click on the following link:
www.christchurchreimagined.co.nz
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