Tourism New Zealand picks Sao Paulo

Tourism New Zealand will open a new office in Sao Paulo, Brazil to serve as the base of its new Latin American activity.

Tourism New Zealand will open a new office in Sao Paulo, Brazil to serve as the base of its new Latin American activity.

The announcement was made by the Rt. Hon. John Key, Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, at the Latin American Business Council lunch earlier today.

Latin America has been identified as an โ€œemerging marketโ€ that offers significant growth potential for tourism in New Zealand.

In Budget 2013/14, the Government announced an additional $123 million in funding for Tourism New Zealand over four years, with $44.5 million tagged specifically to attracting visitors from emerging growth markets.

Tourism New Zealandโ€™s Chief Executive Kevin Bowler says research into the Latin American markets of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico revealed that Brazil is the market which offers the most significant opportunity.

โ€œIn the last couple of months we have undertaken a detailed analysis of the regionโ€™s potential for visitors to New Zealand.

โ€œWe have conducted interviews with trade and industry experts and consulted MFAT, NZTE and Education NZ. At the same time, we have put into the field consumer studies in Chile and Brazil.

โ€œThrough all of this, Brazil came up trumps.

โ€œCurrently over half of our Brazilian visitors come to New Zealand for holiday purposes and they stay on average for 13 days. Thereโ€™s great opportunity for growth.

โ€œThe key to building New Zealandโ€™s position as a desirable tourism destination in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America is having a team in-market.

โ€œWe have just begun the recruitment process for a staff of three. From here we will start building relationships with the travel trade and media, and will launch marketing campaigns to capture the opportunity.โ€

The Sao Paulo office will report to Gregg Anderson, Tourism New Zealandโ€™s General Manager Western Markets, based in Los Angeles.

Last week, Tourism New Zealand also announced the launch of four new market versions of its consumer website newzealand.com, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Indonesia with translations provided in Spanish, Portuguese and Bahasa Indonesia.

Tourism New Zealand currently has 12 offices world-wide, with two in New Zealand. The new Sao Paulo office brings the number to 13.

Tourism New Zealand also plans to open an office in Indonesia as part of its Emerging Markets strategy.

The third emerging market India, already has an established Tourism New Zealand office. Recent recruitment has seen staff numbers grow from one to four.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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