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DESTINATION NEWS YOU CAN USE


New Zealand expects Hobbit film to boost UK arrivals for ‘many years’


Juliet Dennis


Tourism New Zealand expects the release of the final movie in The Hobbit trilogy to boost UK visitor numbers to the destination for “many years”. Speaking in the week the film


was previewed in the UK, chief executive Kevin Bowler urged agents to capitalise on the increased interest in the country. “What we have found is that


New Zealand is a place people would like to go to one day, but the films have catapulted us to the top of that list,” he said. “It is converting well to visitor growth.


“The financial crisis was tough,


but even the UK is growing. We are just over 2% up year on year in UK visitor numbers. We are up to nearly 200,000 from the UK, which we had at the beginning of the global financial crisis. My feeling is we will have a record summer and that the film will stimulate people to come next summer.” The tourist board has partnered


with Warner Brothers to work with STA Travel and Trailfinders to promote New Zealand by using references to The Hobbit: The


Kevin Bowler (left) with The Hobbit director Peter Jackson


2% New Zealand’s


year-on-year rise in UK arrivals in 2014


Battle of the Five Armies. It is also working


with operators to offer


incentives, particularly targeted at the shoulder seasons in late March, April, May and September 2015. Danielle Genty-Nott, Tourism


New Zealand’s regional manager for the UK and Europe, added: “January and February are full.” The set used in The Lord of the


Rings trilogy and The Hobbit films has been opened as a permanent visitor attraction. newzealand.com/uk


22 • travelweekly.co.uk — 11 December 2014


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