While the National Geographic has defined the new “geotourist”, Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) have in recent years re-focused their promotions onto a group they call “Interactive Travellers”.

Interactive Travellers strongly resemble geotourists as they:

1. are regular international travellers
   

2. consume a wide range of tourism products and services
   

3. seek out new experiences that involve interacting with nature, social and cultural environments
   

4. respect the environment, culture and values of others
   

5. don’t mind planning and booking holidays directly
   

6. prefer authentic products and experiences
   

7. are health conscious
   

8. enjoy outdoor activity
   

9. are sociable, like to learn and to ‘connect’ with others
   

10. have high levels of disposable income.
    

Market research for TNZ suggests that Interactive Travellers make up a small but significant part of the population. Estimates vary from 5.8% in the USA, through 7.4% in the UK, to 8.9% in Australia.

TNZ focused its promotion on the Interactive Traveller for four reasons:

1. 1.Financial constraints: New Zealand has a limited budget for promotion to would-be visitors. The bigger the target, the further the budget is spread and the less impact it will make. TNZ’s marketing will be more effective with a bigger impact with a smaller target.
   

2. 2.Finite resources: New Zealand can’t increase the amount of natural tourism assets it has. Rather than trying to simply increase the volume of visitors, we need to focus our messages on the people who most appreciate what we have, and can help us to maintain a high quality visitor experience.
   

3. 3.Proposition match: As a place to have a holiday, New Zealand is more attractive or relevant to some people than others. It’s logical to attract the visitors who have the greatest chance of being highly satisfied.
   

4. 4.Strategy 2010: New Zealand has four long term goals for tourism that it believes will be easier to meet if it target markets t interactive travellers:
   

1. (1)provide a world class, sustainable visitor experience
   

2. (2)develop a compelling brand
   

3. (3)match brand promise and product delivery
   

4. (4)optimise yield, seasonality and regional spread.

Click here to return to Cook Islands Geotourism Strategy

Click on the image above to download the Tourism New Zealand pamphlet

Home

Projects

Cook Islands Case Studies

Cook Islands Geotourism Strategy

Interactive Traveller

Geotourism

Geotourism research

Visitor satisfaction

Strategy development

Personnel

Contact Us