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Speaker 1: More uplifting news though in the meantime around tourism, Queenstown

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Speaker 1: is now at ninety five percent of pre COVID, so

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Speaker 1: there's been one hundred and ninety two thousand international rivals

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Speaker 1: between jan and August of this year. That's up fourteen

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Speaker 1: percent on last year. Australia's You're King of the Castle.

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Speaker 1: Forty percent of every international rival is from Australia. Reno

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Speaker 1: de marsh is the chief executive of Tourism New Zealand.

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Speaker 2: Back with us.

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Speaker 1: Morning to you, Good morning, Mike. Does summer look good

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Speaker 1: at the Ford bookings? Bullish?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the Ford bookings are pretty bullish actually, I mean

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Speaker 2: we're pretty pleased to see the momentum continue to grow

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Speaker 2: as you see it in your intro. So you know,

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Speaker 2: August as a month was up seven point five percent

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Speaker 2: on August last year, and the outlook for summer is

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Speaker 2: actually really positive, is what we're hearing from operators across

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Speaker 2: the board. So that's that's really good news for the industry.

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Speaker 1: It's Queenstown, the Canary and the tourism coal mine where

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Speaker 1: they go, they'll eventually get to the rest of the

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Speaker 1: country or we can't say that.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, I mean, Queenstown is hugely popular, as you know,

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Speaker 2: and their recovery is leading the rest of the country.

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Speaker 2: It's also true that, as you mentioned that the number

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Speaker 2: of Australians coming here. You know, it's one of the

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Speaker 2: better connected airports. You've got all the different carriers that

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Speaker 2: are flying into Queenstown, so it's very easy to get

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Speaker 2: there from the Eastern seaboard. But look, really what's really

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Speaker 2: important is that we continue to promote all of the country.

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Speaker 2: You know, Queenstown is one destination, but there are many

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Speaker 2: great destinations. So we need to continue to work hard

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Speaker 2: to really get people out and about and around the country.

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Speaker 1: Are we tapping out the Australian market. I mean, that's

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Speaker 1: a heavy reliance on one market, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: No, we're not tapping it out. I mean it's a

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Speaker 2: huge market and it's the only one obviously that's close by,

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Speaker 2: you know. And it's fair to say Australia is stronger

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Speaker 2: now than it has been, but it's only probably about

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Speaker 2: five or six percentage points. So previously Australia was always

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Speaker 2: close to about forty percent of all arrivals. It's a

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Speaker 2: little higher than that at the moment. But we're really

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Speaker 2: making the most of that. Lots of Australians you know,

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Speaker 2: are going, we really want to get over to New Zealand,

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Speaker 2: so we want to make the most of that opportunity.

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Speaker 1: Is our promotional work actually working? Can you kpi it

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Speaker 1: and so meant X and got y?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, we do that across all of the work

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Speaker 2: that we do. We look at it at a campaign level,

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Speaker 2: We look at what are the different metrics we also

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Speaker 2: track to do our research and ask consumers, you know,

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Speaker 2: are they getting and they're now feeling they're more ready

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Speaker 2: to book than they were before. So not only are

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Speaker 2: we tracking bookings off the back of our work, but

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Speaker 2: also looking at people is their intent to book increasing?

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Speaker 2: Because you know, a holiday you've got to take a

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Speaker 2: bit of time, you've got to plan it, you got

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Speaker 2: to take leave. So we track all of those metrics

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Speaker 2: across the work that we do.

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Speaker 1: Our beleagued dollar must be good, mustn't If you, even

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Speaker 1: if you're Australian, you're looking at a good number at

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Speaker 1: the moment, aren't you?

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Speaker 2: What's that? Sorry?

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Speaker 1: Are you're looking at a good number at the moment

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Speaker 1: if you're our beleaguered dollar?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, Look I think there is you know that

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Speaker 2: is helping us a bit of a tail wind certainly

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Speaker 2: out if you look out of the US market as well.

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Speaker 2: Strong US dollar to the New Zealand dollar. I think

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Speaker 2: that certainly helps make it easier to make a travel decision.

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Speaker 1: Well, let's hope it's great summer. Good to catch up,

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Speaker 1: appreciate it. Renee de Monho's the cheap executive of two

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Speaker 1: New Zealand. Just while I'm on the broad subject tourism

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Speaker 1: holdings expecting to return to profitability, one of the big

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Speaker 1: players in the market. Of course, they're all over the world,

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Speaker 1: grant webs to the chief executive, a semi regular on

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Speaker 1: this particular program, but they've seen growth here. Australia, Canada,

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Speaker 1: the UK and Ireland are the Ford Book remainder of

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Speaker 1: the financial year in New Zealand, Australia, Canada twenty percent

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Speaker 1: ahead of last year. We remain confident that we've turned

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Speaker 1: the corner, so we wish them well.

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Speaker 2: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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