Tourism New Zealand has welcomed the announcement of new Air New Zealand flights from New Zealand to Vancouver. “This is great news for our tourism industry,” says George Hickton…
Tourism New Zealand has welcomed the announcement of new Air New Zealand flights from New Zealand to Vancouver. “This is great news for our tourism industry,” says George Hickton, Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive. “A direct flight will make New Zealand so much more appealing to this market.”
Tourism from Canada to New Zealand has been growing strongly for the last few years, with numbers to New Zealand growing by nine percent in 2006.
“Despite strong growth we believe this market has further potential for New Zealand tourism,” says Mr Hickton. “Within North America, Ontario and British Columbia specifically are important regions. The convenience of direct flights is going to have a real impact.”
He says the direct flight will also open up opportunities from other markets.
“With Canadians having their own flights, this will take some pressure off the heavily used California to New Zealand air routes, and open up more seats for US visitors. We know that there are a large number of Canadians that fit well with the sort of visitor we are trying to attract to New Zealand, the type of visitor that does more while they are here and stays for longer. Tourism New Zealand can see much potential for growth from this development and is looking forward to working with Air New Zealand to help maximise the potential from this initiative,” he concluded.
Canadian visitors to New Zealand according to December 2006 statistics are 45,955, an increase of 8.9% while the Canadian holiday visitors in NZ average length of stay is 26 days.
