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Speaker 1: You dart around our slow to recover tourism industry, international

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Speaker 1: visitors back to at eighty percent now of what we

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Speaker 1: saw for COVID, there were two point nine six million

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Speaker 1: last year. CEO of Totally Tourism, Mark quick Falls with

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Speaker 1: us Mike Morning.

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Speaker 2: Good morning mate.

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Speaker 1: I just don't see this as a thing to celebrate.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I'm looking at countries in Europe that are

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Speaker 1: one hundred plus and they hate tourists and their protesting

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Speaker 1: in the streets, and we're going it's eighty it's eighty one,

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Speaker 1: it's eighty two. What's wrong with us?

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Speaker 2: Well, I guess you've got a put of perspective. You

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Speaker 2: go back twenty twenty one, we had eighty two thousand people,

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Speaker 2: are right, So businesses like ours when COVID arriving the

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Speaker 2: lost ninety percent of our business over night. To get

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Speaker 2: back to eighty percent is a positive, certainly, not a negative.

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Speaker 2: But you're right. We've got to keep in perspective and

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Speaker 2: we've got to keep working hard at rebuilding the industry.

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Speaker 2: And I think it doesn't reflect time a year and

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Speaker 2: the type of visitor that's coming is important to focus on.

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Speaker 2: You know, in the last twenty four hours down here

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Speaker 2: in Queenstown and if that's snow, that'll certainly turn the

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Speaker 2: tap on for winter. No snow. Australians are pretty savvy.

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Speaker 2: They won't fly over here to go skiing. As soon

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Speaker 2: as it arrives, you know, connectivity, they can book their

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Speaker 2: flight and right if.

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Speaker 1: You're an outlier though in Queenstown, aren't your Queenstown seems

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Speaker 1: to be back to some form of normality. The country

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Speaker 1: doesn't seem to be the case. Are you happy with

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Speaker 1: the way we're selling ourselves, the marketing, the branding to

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Speaker 1: the world, that all seasonal tourist type approach they're taking

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Speaker 1: is all of that good stuff?

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Speaker 2: Yes it is. But look, I can probably comment on

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Speaker 2: other areas we operate, the West coast malt Kop and

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Speaker 2: they certainly hit very hard over COVID, So I mean,

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Speaker 2: like the West coast Crans and Fox it was like

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Speaker 2: the ghost towns. They have seen certainly seen the benefit

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Speaker 2: of the return of international travel. But getting back to

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Speaker 2: promoting the country, I think we do have to be

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Speaker 2: careful not to focus too much on all the negatives

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Speaker 2: of over crowding region of tourism. You know, we have

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Speaker 2: to we actually have to acknowledge those points, but we

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Speaker 2: don't want to lose sight of the fact that comes

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Speaker 2: to New Zealand have a great time, have a lot

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Speaker 2: of fun, enjoyed our joy our food and wine, enjoyed

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Speaker 2: outdoor activities and you know, and there's been a lot

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Speaker 2: of investment in that type of promotion over many, many years.

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Speaker 2: Right now, we've got two staff members in China doing

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Speaker 2: a sales trip, working with Tourist New Zealand and some

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Speaker 2: of our partners to encourage people to come here and

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Speaker 2: tell them why they should come good. Well, you certainly, yeah,

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Speaker 2: you certainly focus on a negative, but we've got to

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Speaker 2: get out there and say to people New Zealand is

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Speaker 2: still a fantastic holiday destination, very very affordable, and New

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Speaker 2: Zealanders love hosting people.

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Speaker 1: Good. Well, let's hope the message gets out there. Certainly

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Speaker 1: the dollars helping us at the moment, Marke appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: Mark quick Full, CEO of Totally Tourism. For more from

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Speaker 1: the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks that'd

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Speaker 1: be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.