Tourism New Zealand and Auckland Airport announce joint venture campaign with Thai Airways

Tourism New Zealand and Auckland Airport have announced a new joint venture partnership with Thai Airways with the aim of driving high-value travel out of the India market. The campaign runs from August – September 2015 with travel validity until March 2016.

The previous joint venture agreement between these parties contributed to 30% year-on-year growth to New Zealand through two consumer campaigns. The majority of bookings resulting from these campaigns came from Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata.

Speaking about the partnership, Steven Dixon, Regional Manager – South and South East Asia, Tourism New Zealand said,“The year ending June 2016 is key for us as we enter the third year of our marketing strategy in India. Over the past two years, we have introduced campaigns and activities to drive high-value visitor arrivals from India to New Zealand. Tourism New Zealand and Thai Airways see India as a dynamic and growing key market. Through this partnership we aim to ensure a holiday in New Zealand is more accessible for Indian visitors.”

The partnership between Tourism New Zealand and Auckland Airport aims to deliver 50,000 total Indian arrivals to New Zealand by 2017 from the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. This collaboration targets independent professionals with a special promotional fare for travel to New Zealand.

Mr. Korakot Chatasingha, General Manager-India for Thai Airways further adds, “We are happy to once again join hands with Tourism New Zealand and Auckland Airport to promote New Zealand. Our main focus is to increase more visitors to Auckland especially from the niche segment of Honeymooners and Leisure travellers besides our regular focus on Student & VFR Traffic. Our earlier two promotions with them have shown very positive results and we are confident that our focus through our network to New Zealand especially with our Daylight convenient connections and special promotional fares for Aug-Sep will support our initiative.”

“We are excited about this joint venture with Thai Airways and Tourism New Zealand, which will help to increase the number of Indian travellers visiting New Zealand on holiday. India is a key market for New Zealand with holiday arrivals estimated to be worth at least $50 million per year to our economy,” says Norris Carter, Auckland Airport’s General Manager Aeronautical Commercial. “New Zealand has unique tourism products on offer throughout the year and this campaign will particularly help to promote travel to New Zealand from spring through to autumn. This is important to further stimulate growth from the Indian market, in particular during the shoulder seasons.”

For the year ending June 2015, New Zealand’s visitor arrivals from India were 42,672, an increase of 25.9% on the previous year. Of these, 20,128 were holiday arrivals, a +24.1% increase on the previous year.