RTOs are acknowledged and respected as the key regional agencies responsible for fostering and promoting regional tourism development.

 

Welcoming, supportive communities are a vital part of what New Zealand has to offer our visitors, be they international guests, or Kiwis discovering their own place. To ensure New Zealanders continue to offer manaakitanga to our visitors, it is essential that our destination is well managed to meet the needs of both residents and visitors.

 

While there are major variations in RTO scale and structure, nearly all RTOs are defined by the following common key goal:

 

To provide sustainable economic, environmental, social, and cultural benefits, through tourism, to the local community.

 

RTOs are community based, professionally staffed and well linked into the wider visitor industry networks at regional, national and international levels. Therefore, RTO’s are best equipped to lead communities in developing destination management plans, and implementing locally agreed and supportive strategies that enhance their place in a sustainable and regenerative manner.

 

As a Regional Tourism Organisation, we are the first point of contact of many stakeholders (Tourism New Zealand, Tourism organisations and associations, agents...). 

We have quite a few touchpoints throughout the year.

Help us help You!

 

 

Trade Newsletters

Only for Trade ready operators.

We send a newsletter quarterly to Travel agents from all over the world:

  • March
  • June
  • September
  • December

The newsletter is sent to a bit more than 1600 contacts on the last Friday of each of these months.

 

How can you help?

Send us what's new in your world (refurbishment, new products, change in timings or operations, celebrations). We love to hear about you and the agents do too.

 

 

Famils

We organise media & trade famils on a regular basis. 

Can be by ourselves, with our neighbouring regions, media reaching out directly or via/on behalf of TNZ. We are busy organising these famils and thoroughly enjoy showcasing our backyard! 

We can never guarantee sharing the love equally amongst operators (as it depends on markets, target audience, theme, what's new...) but we aimed to show as much as we can in the short amount of time we have with our guests.

 

How can you help?

  • Be ready to host! Agents love to ask questions and who know your business better than yourselves? plus you are creating connections, putting faces to names you will have sometimes only interacted with by emails.
  • Provide us with the best rates you can. The lower the cost of these famils the more people we can host and therefore spread the word about our beloved region. Remember we have the lowest budget out of all 31 RTOs, we therefore appreciate all the support we can get. We are therefore expecting FOC as much as possible or at cost. Famils are not here to generate profit for your businesses but to showcase your product, consider it as part of your marketing budget.
  • Health & Safety: Have all documentations sent to us as soon as possible. you renew your Qualmark accreditation, send it to us straight away. We get enquiries early so if we already have all the documentations ready to go, it makes our lives easy. Moving forward, we won't be able to include operators without having reviewed H&S documentation.

 

 

Tradeshows

We aim to attend as many tradeshows as our budget allows.

Nurturing these relationships are very important within the trade industry.

We represent Kaikōura and the trade ready operators by educating agents and media on the region itself and the products that are relevant to the audience the agent interacts with. No point showcasing a small B&B to an agent that only does groups...

Some events are only for RTOs, others also allow operators to join. 

 

What do you need to do?

  • We recommend checking this page regularly and attend events that are relevant to your business strategy.
  • For events reserved to RTOs, make sure we have your one-pager (template available here. change text and pictures only and send it back to Geraldine)
  • For all events, have 3 to 5 USPs ready to go, a PowerPoint presentation, a fact sheet, a trade manual, a link to your image and video library.

 

 

Trade Directory

For trade ready operators only.

We will have a section dedicated to sharing your products with the trade industry. Agents will come to our website as a one stop shop to gather information about our region but also about your products.

Make the most of it!

You will have a dedicated page with all your information (except rates). Perfect for those follow ups after famils and tradeshows.

We are aiming to have this ready as soon as possible considering we are attending events as early as February 2024 but are aiming for TRENZ 2024 at the latest.

 

How can you help?

Please send Geraldine:

  • Trade Manual
  • Fact Sheet (1 page summary)
  • Powerpoint Presentation
  • Image & Video library (preferably no credit or licencing and properly named) that agents can use as they wish.
  • If your product is linked to seasonality (example: wildlife) a one pager about what clients can see throughout the year (migration, pup season, breeding season...) – agents love to know!
  • Translation of documentation for key non-english speaking markets (if you have this)

Remember we can help. We have templates to help you but can also help put your information into beautiful collaterals, so don't hesitate! 

Make sure you send me the latest version and remember that every time you update any of these documents to also send me the updated version.

 

 

Hope that all makes sense. If you need anything, remember we are just an email or a phone call away!