Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) and Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) have entered into a three-year global leisure travel deal to promote the country as a top holiday spot.
The partnership will extend to four key markets; Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and South Africa, with a first-of-its-kind focus on investment in Flight Centre’s global brand assets to drive enquiry across aligned priority source markets.
“New Zealand is a top five destination across three key markets for our flagship leisure brand Flight Centre,” said James Kavanagh, FCTG Global Leisure CEO.
“We’re starting from a solid foundation and know there’s still a lot of opportunity to boost travel in off-peak seasons, eliminate seasonality divide and instead position New Zealand as a year-round destination.
“We’ll focus on driving visitation through some incredible product offerings across our brands to provide customers with choice and convenience when it comes to booking their New Zealand getaway.”
René de Monchy, Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive, said being able to tap into Flight Centre’s global customer network was strongly aligned with driving ongoing growth in visitor numbers.
“We’re excited to be working with Flight Centre to help channel this growth strategically and encourage travellers to experience the best of New Zealand all year round,” said de Monchy.
“Flight Centre’s customers tend to stay longer, spend more and book earlier, so the brand’s engaged customer base will be key to the success of this partnership.”
According to Tourism New Zealand, the country’s holiday arrivals are growing at just under 13 per cent compared to a year ago, but an increase in capacity is vital to servicing this ongoing demand.
“International air capacity to New Zealand is crucial for achieving our ambitious growth aspirations,” Mr de Monchy said.
“It is sitting at around 89 per cent of 2019 levels – we’d obviously love to see that capacity increase and provide consumers with greater options and price competition as additional carriers come onto routes.”
Main picture: L-R: Andrew Stark, Flight Centre MD; Greg Parker, CEO Supply FCTG; Graham Turner, Founder and CEO FCTG, James Kavanagh CEO Leisure FCTG; René de Monchy, CEO Tourism NZ; Angela Blair, GM International, Tourism NZ; Andrew Waddel, GM Australia, Tourism NZ.
