CongratulationsTo Tamaki Māori Village, who won the TNT Golden Backpack Award for Cultural Experience at the award function in Australia last week. Read more here.
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Cultural sites could lose their protectionAuckland Council is moving to cut red tape around developments near culturally protected areas, but local Māori warn there could be repercussions. There are 3600 Sites of Value to Mana Whenua in the unitary plan, and the council wants to get rid of 1373 of them. Work within 50m of the sites needs resource consent, and potentially consultation with local iwi. The council said cutting the number of sites was urgently needed to ease the burden of resource consent on landowners and developers. Read more here.
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Popular trio rule on tourists Golden RouteShort-stay Chinese visitors are spending up large in Auckland and Queenstown but snubbing some of the country's biggest cities for the cultural hot-spot of Rotorua. This tourism spending trend shows what is called the "Golden Route". This was the term used by the chief executive of the Tourism Industry Association, Chris Roberts, to describe the three destinations of Auckland, Rotorua and Queenstown. Read more here.
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New Zealand’s most photographed Church needs industry help!Visitor numbers to the Church of the Good Shepherd have reached 300,000 per annum and there are issues with security, safety, pollution of the church area and environs. It is so busy they cannot even grow grass in the grassed areas due to the numbers of visitors. Add to this the ever increasing numbers of freedom campers’ over- nighting in the vicinity and it’s not hard to see that the church is under threat. The Church has a fulltime minister who along with 5 guides and a number of volunteers assist in the day to day running matters such as guiding , security, ground maintenance, cleaning etc but they need more help. In the short term, what can the industry do to help? 1. Promote on itineraries more information about respecting the Church and to remind visitors that it is a living Church, similar to a temple or religious shrine. 2. Encourage more donations from their clients or from companies who know the the Church is on group or self-drive itineraries 3 Form a sustainable tourism work group to assist Church and community representatives
For more info contact Phil Brownie pgbrownie@gmail.com or 027 274 1650
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Tourism New Zealand Roadshows – Strategic Updates From 25-26 November Tourism New Zealand’s senior team will once again visit Auckland, Rotorua, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown to update the industry on its strategic direction. Be sure to register your interest now to save the date and your place at the session nearest you.
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Big boost for Māori exportsNew Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) is committing an extra $1.6 million to support Māori businesses wanting to grow internationally, the Minister of Māori Development has announced. Te Ururoa Flavell recently led a ministerial delegation to China and said there was huge interest in the unique value that Māori businesses offered overseas.
Read more here.
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Alitrip wants to innovate and disrupt travel – here’s howAlitrip, formerly Taobao Travel, was established as an independent, one-stop online travel platform in October 2014. Part of the Alibaba ecosystem, Alitrip served 50 million travellers in one year alone. With China’s biggest online shopping day less than a month away, all bets are off in terms of how high this number will go. November 11– originally an anti-Valentines’ Day celebration – has been adopted by the Alibaba Group as Singles’ Day and marketed as China’s online shopping day. Last year, online sales (chiefly conducted on mobile devices) reached US$9.3 billion in 24 hours. Alitrip customers chalked up over 500 million travel packages, 300,000 air tickets and 150,000 hotel room nights during the sale. Read more here.
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Influx of Asian visitors to boost Australian tourismSoaring Asian tourist numbers are expected to bolster Australian tourism revenue, forecast to reach almost A$130 billion (NZ$139 billion) within five years. The travel sector is booming thanks to the Australian dollar's recent tailspin, and is currently worth an estimated A$118 billion in revenue, an IBISWorld report shows. That figure is set to balloon to A$129.7 billion by 2020/21 as more visitors from neighbouring Asian nations travel Down Under. Travellers to Australia are at record highs, and for the first time, tourists from greater China - including Hong Kong - overtook New Zealand in September, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show. Read more here.
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Culture as connection: tikanga Māori as a foundation for businessIn one sense, there’s no difference between Māori business and any other: demonstrating and delivering value to customers and investors is critical. Many a whakatauki, once translated, would not be out of place in a book written by Jim Collins: "Me mātau ki te whetū, i mua i te kōkiri o te haere / Before you set forth on a journey, be sure you know the stars." But there is a wider sense in which both culture and history matter. Māori participation in business needs to increase across the board. Visible role models are rare: there are no Māori directors in New Zealand’s top 20 NZX companies, and there is no Māori CEO of a listed company in New Zealand. How can we expand the Māori economy in a way that respects culture, and what roles might technology play? Read more here.
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Naning Television Spring Festival ProgramThis is a television program broadcast at Chinese New Year Eve in early February with over 100 million viewers over seven countries including China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Viernam, and Australia. If you are interested to take advantage of the exposure that you may get by being involved with the program, please contact
Stephen Wong at Chinese Media Bureau Group on swong6688@gmail.com
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Giant plastic waka heads for TaurangaTauranga will have a new cultural icon after a local hapu purchased a giant plastic waka. Local iwi member Te Awanuiarangi Black is excited by the announcement. "Awesome. I mean it's a really good kaupapa. Really
happy. The more that we can Māori up our localities and our environments, that's all good." The 80m fibreglass waka, which was built for the 2011 Rugby World Cup, was bought from Auckland iwi Ngati Whatua ki Orakei. Read more here.
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AKL-LAX fare war begins
The long-awaited airfare war between New Zealand and the United States has taken off and is being welcomed by the Kiwi travel and tourism industry.
More Kiwis will be heading to Disneyland after American Airlines confirmed yesterday that it will start flying between Los Angeles and Auckland from June next year. Doug Parker, chief executive of American Airlines, the world's biggest airline, said fares had not yet been set but they would be competitive. The new
service, which involves daily flights on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner for much of the year, will need regulatory approvals. Read more here.
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