NEW ZEALAND: Key Partnerships To Drive Incentive Travel From South East Asia

New Zealand is set to welcome more incentive travellers from South East Asia than ever before thanks to a series of key partnerships and agreements making it easier for businesses to bring their corporate incentives to New Zealand.

This month Tourism New Zealand signed a co-marketing agreement with Dynasty Travel, one of Singapore's leading travel agencies, along with partners Air New Zealand and Winchester Travel, which aims to grow incentive travel to New Zealand out of Singapore.

Tourism New Zealand Regional Manager South and South East Asia Steven Dixon says, “The progress we have made over the past few months in South East Asia is exciting news for the business events sector and will see more incentive travellers visit New Zealand.”

“Incentive travel is a global management tool used by companies to motivate and recognise staff for outstanding performance by offering special travel experiences.

“It presents significant opportunity for Tourism New Zealand to bring more high value visitors to New Zealand and is a primary focus of our business events activity in the South East Asia markets,” says Steven.

Under the new marketing agreement Tourism New Zealand will be able to extend the reach of its activity to directly target key decision makers in large corporate firms in Singapore.

Director of Sales, MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Events) Department, Dynasty Travel Ms Eileen Phua says, “We are very pleased and excited about this collaboration with Tourism New Zealand. It is a great opportunity for us to showcase New Zealand as an excellent MICE destination to our corporate clients.”

Tourism New Zealand has also signed two additional partnerships which will work to position New Zealand as a desirable incentive destination in South East Asia.

Late last year Tourism New Zealand signed a partnership with Immigration New Zealand and three MICE agents in Thailand - Big World Holidays Co. Ltd, Green Line Travel and Global Link International Holiday Co Ltd.

The partnership will work to facilitate faster processing of visitor visa applications from nationals of Thailand who want to travel to New Zealand to attend business events.

In addition Tourism New Zealand, together with Immigration New Zealand and four Indonesian travel agents signed a Memorandum of Understanding late last year, to facilitate faster processing of visa applications for Indonesians attending business events and corporate incentive trips.

“These partnerships are vital in breaking down barriers such a visa processing to help position New Zealand as a more desirable destination for corporates in South East Asia,” says Steven.

“From July – December 2015, we confirmed six incentive groups from the South East Asia region who will travel to New Zealand sometime in 2016-2018. These groups represent an additional 3,200 delegates worth an estimated $10.3 million to the New Zealand economy. Through these partnerships we’re confident that we will see these numbers continue to grow.”

Read more about Tourism New Zealand’s work to attract more business events delegates here.