Tourism Board gives preview of the Australian Campaign

Tourism Board members have given a preview to the media on Thursday lunchtime as to their marketing plans for the direct Sydney to Rarotonga flight due to start on Friday 4 July 2010.
The direct flights are with Air New Zealand who are said to have reorganized their global schedules in order to provide the Cook Islands with this window of opportunity for direct flights for Australian travelers. The Australian campaign has a budget of $250,000 leading up and including the four month trial period for the direct flights which begin on 4 July until 7 October 2010.
Undoubtedly it is the special relationship with Air New Zealand and New Zealand that has convinced the airline to give the country this opportunity and now it is up to the Cook Islands to make sure it is a success.
So far, 800 seats have been sold and Tourism need to sell a further 2,200 seats or 80% load factor in order to make the Sydney to Rarotonga direct flights a viable option rather than having to go via New Zealand.
The perceived inconvenience of having to do so, has been seen as an obstacle, hence the push for the direct flights.
The Australian traveler is regarded as more ‘top end’ and tend to have a higher spend, longer stays and higher yield that the average Kiwi visitor but the Australians will need to be enticed to come over.
With that in mind, Tourism will be recommending to the industry that they need to promote holiday packages of around $1000 Australian for a six night stay (airfares and accommodation) to entice the travelers to try the Cook Islands to take break from their winter break in sunny Rarotonga.
This ballpark figure has been arrived at after scanning the Australian market and taking the advice of wholesalers in Australia and of Air New Zealand, as to what will bring a good response in the market. In other words, ‘we need to sharpen our pencils’ so that our pricings are competitive with other popular holiday destinations for the Aussie traveler.
Comparable packages on the market to other destinations are Fiji at around $1029 (7 nights), Vanuatu for $919 (5 nights) and Bali at anything from budget price of $485 (5 nights) bur more usually from $1399 upwards (8 nights) to $1788 (all in Australian dollars).
Outer islands will also be promoted with consideration given to something the Aituaki one dollar add on gimmick, however, given the extremely tight timelines for the marketing period and that the direct Syd-Raro scheme is only for a trial period of only four months, it is envisaged that much of the initial focus will be on Rarotonga.
Also on advice of the wholesalers, the marketing efforts in the first instance, will be concentrated in NSW which is the most populous state with the city of Sydney alone having four million citizens. The marketing strategies will be a mix of direct marketing via the media, cooperative adverting with wholesalers, offering specials, website initiatives and the trade show in May to be held in five cities in NSW.
Potential markets they could tap into are the large Kiwi expatriate market, or even become a viable option for European or American travelers to stopover in Cook Islands (instead of Auckland) on their way to Australia and vice versa. Thomas Koteka said he had checked one of the American websites this morning which was already floating that very concept as an option this morning.
The Tourism Board will be unveiling their Australian Campaign marketing plans to the tourism industry at a meeting on Thursday 29 April. They will need the support of the industry with regard to special deals re accommodation within the price range they will be recommending and after their endorsement, the Board will roll out their Australian Campaign from next week.
Postscript
Board members were unfazed when asked who would be acting as our Australian wholesaler in light of the axing of de Doby whose term ends next week. According to Thomas Koteka, the position has been advertised and applications have been received and the Board is going through the process of evaluation of those applications.
In the meantime, they have already identified a suitable candidate to take over and have plans in place to set up a temporary office with the same contact phone numbers, faxes and email address for all enquiries on behalf of Cook Islands Tourism.

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