Tag Archives: Steven Dixon

Tourism New Zealand virtually launched its new campaign ‘Messages from New Zealand’ today in presence of Steven Dixon, Regional Trade Marketing Manager, Asia, Tourism New Zealand and His Excellency, David Pine, New Zealand’s High Commissioner to India. ‘Messages from New Zealand’ features everyday New Zealanders sharing video messages of hope and care with their international whānau (family), presenting a unique Kiwi perspective about what is important to them. The campaign showcases locals who embody the values of manaakitanga (hospitality) and kaitiakitanga (care for the land) through positivity and encouragement. This beautifully captures their wholesome messages of kindness and compassion to family, friends and loved ones all around the world. The campaign will be released through social and digital channels. Each of these ‘Messages’ will show that New Zealand is a country which is driven by what matters in life, underpinned by the purity of its values such as Manaakitanga and Kaitiakitanga. And to build on the success of these webinars, and further engage and educate agents, Tourism New Zealand will launch a ‘Virtual Road Trip’ campaign later this week. The ‘Virtual Road Trip’ will showcase a different region of the country each month. This campaign will be shared on Tourism New Zealand’s travel trade website. To bring to life the campaign in India, Tourism New Zealand will be partnering with its Indian whānau, including influencers – who have a strong affinity with New Zealand – highlighting their own personal experiences and connections with the country. Commenting on the campaign, Dixon says, “The travel industry has been impacted by the Covid-19 crisis tremendously in the past few months and it is important now more than ever, that we stay connected to visitors and our travel …

The total visitor arrivals from India to New Zealand have doubled from 33,000 to 66,000 in the past four years, with more Indians visiting the country than ever before. In recognition of this incredible growth, Tourism New Zealand is expanding its annual travel trade event, Kiwi Link India, this year. The new format will see the organisation and partners hosting key buyers from around India in Mumbai from July 9-10, followed by frontline training in Bangalore and New Delhi from July 12-13 respectively. Kiwi Link serves as a platform for Indian travel agents, product managers and planners to interact with New Zealand operators and understand the new developments and market insights in the tourism sector. Kiwi Link 2018 will see participation from record 40 New Zealand operators, along with three airlines – Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways, Immigration New Zealand and 72 Indian delegates from 49 travel companies. More than 50 Indian participants are expected to attend the frontline training programme which will be conducted in the Bengaluru and New Delhi markets. Steven Dixon, Regional Manager-South and South-East Asia, Tourism New Zealand said, “The record number of New Zealand operators visiting India to participate in Kiwi Link this year is a real reflection on the value we place on the market. This event provides an opportunity for both new and experienced tourism operators to develop an alliance with vital travel decision makers, thus enabling them to drive sales out of India.”

Tourism New Zealand and Immigration New Zealand have launched an extension of the Tourism Industry Partnership (TIP) Programme to facilitate faster processing of visitor visa applications for Indian leisure travellers. Riding on the success of the previous partnership between Immigration New Zealand (INZ), Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) and key travel agents, the Tourism Industry Partnership (TIP) Programme has now been extended to leisure agents. The previous programme was launched in November 2014 and focussed on the business and incentive travel sector. With this new arrangement, Indian leisure travellers will benefit from a more streamlined visa service, with a faster processing time of three days, compared to the previous online application processing time of 15 days. Steven Dixon, Regional Manager, South and South-East Asia, Tourism New Zealand said, “This new visa process will make it even easier for Indian travellers to experience New Zealand.  India is an important market for Tourism New Zealand and it is pleasing to see the increase in the number of Indians choosing New Zealand as their favoured destination. This agreement will ensure that New Zealand welcomes even more high calibre visitors.” Commenting on this, Marcelle Foley, Head, Operations Immigration New Zealand said, “We have enjoyed the opportunity to partner with Tourism New Zealand and key players in the Indian travel trade to make it even easier for Indian business event travellers to visit New Zealand. ”

More than 50 travel agents from India and South East Asia visited New Zealand recently to wrap up almost a year of upskilling themselves on New Zealand. The agents landed in Auckland where a one-day workshop was held with 25 regional tourism organisations (RTOs) before they headed out around the country. Steven Dixon, Regional Manager – South and South East Asia, Tourism New Zealand, says it was fantastic to be able to bring these agents to New Zealand to show them first-hand what they’ve been learning about. “The agents ticked off the final requirement to become Gold 100% Pure New Zealand Specialists through their visit to New Zealand. We are confident that the knowledge agents acquired by experiencing New Zealand will help them to better sell the country as a holiday destination to their clients,” Dixon said. Consumer insights and product updates were shared between the agents and RTOs through one-on-one meetings. Tourism New Zealand also provided a market update before the workshop concluded with an award ceremony to recognise the agents becoming Gold specialists. Tourism New Zealand worked with the RTOs to develop three different itineraries for agents. The itineraries were designed in a way that agents could experience as many regions as possible withing their time in New Zealand. They got to experience tourist attractions, accommodation and restaurants that would appeal to their clients.  

Tourism New Zealand introduced a new and improved version of its 100% Pure New Zealand Specialist Programme at Kiwi Link India 2017 in New Delhi and to celebrate is giving travel sellers the chance to win one of four holidays to New Zealand, flying Air New Zealand. The new programme aims at enhancing travel sellers’ knowledge of New Zealand while presenting an opportunity to potentially increase their sales and referrals. Speaking about the programme, Steven Dixon, Tourism New Zealand’s Regional Manager-South and South East Asia, said, “As India is a priority market for us, it is important for us to constantly educate our Indian trade partners with product knowledge and new developments taking place in New Zealand. The 100% Pure New Zealand Specialist Programme, has evolved significantly over time. We are confident the improved programme will meet the needs of industry and are excited to be launching it today.” The new programme introduced has a Gold, Silver and Bronze tier structure, and provides specialists the opportunity to list their offerings on Tourism New Zealand’s main marketing channel – newzealand.com. Additionally, it increases credibility with clients through a certification and use of the 100% Pure New Zealand Specialist logo. By successfully completing 10 training modules, the seller is entitled to become a 100% Pure New Zealand Bronze Specialist and the status can be maintained by completing 2 additional training modules every two years. The 100% Pure New Zealand Silver Specialist can be earned by attending one TNZ led in-country or webinar training session or the Kiwi Link event, in addition to the 10 training modules. The status of the Silver programme can be maintained like the Bronze programme with the addition …

New Zealand has witnessed a steady increase in arrivals from India with 53,424 travellers visiting there as of March 2017, a 14.9 per cent growth from same period last year. To further boost the Indian tourist numbers, Tourism New Zealand is tying up with two airlines to promote the island country in the India sub-continent. The partnership between Tourism New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand is valid from May 2017 to April 2018 and will seek to position Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines as the preferred carriers for travelling to the country and promotional fares will be offered to passengers. The strategic partnership aims to encourage more travellers from key cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram and Vishakhapatnam. “New Zealand is the ultimate destination for many Indian travellers and special promotional fares provide a great opportunity to turn their dream holiday into reality,” said Tourism New Zealand regional manager, South and South East Asia, Steven Dixon. Elaborating on the initiative, David Lim, General Manager, India, said, “We offer 98 weekly connections from 11 cities in India to Singapore and together with our partner – Air New Zealand, we provide over 25 weekly, onward connections to three cities (Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington) in New Zealand.” Scott Carr, Regional General Manager-Asia, Air New Zealand, said, “India is one of our fastest-growing emerging markets and we’re excited about the potential of this campaign to reach more Indian travellers. Through our alliance and code share services with Singapore Airlines, we connect passengers from 11 Indian cities to Singapore, where they can access three non-stop flights a day to New Zealand.”

Tourism New Zealand recorded double digit growth in tourism from India, and have seen a total of 23 per cent more holiday arrivals as compared to last year from India, revealed Steven Dixon, Regional Manager-South and South East Asia, Tourism New Zealand. He was speaking at an event organized in New Delhi to welcome John Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand by the team of Tourism New Zealand and its brand ambassador in India—Sidharth Malhotra. The event also had in attendance Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Union Minister of Tourism and Culture (I/C); former Blackcaps captain and cricketer Brendon McCullum; the New Zealand High Commissioner to India, H.E. Grahame Morton; David Craig, General Manager, Asia, Tourism New Zealand and Steven Dixon, Regional Manager, South and South East Asia, Tourism New Zealand. PM Key is also New Zealand’s Minister of Tourism followed by him addressing the media at the event. “India is a priority emerging market for New Zealand and we have witnessed significant year on year growth in visitor arrivals. While this growth is really exciting to see, we think the Indian market has even greater potential. We are investing to maximise the opportunity, which includes growing the Tourism New Zealand team here in India,” said Dixon.

Tourism New Zealand’s Kiwi Link India is more focused this year with only Mumbai on the agenda. The annual travel trade event, scheduled to take place from July 11-13, opened in Mumbai with the Kiwi delegation including 35 operators, four airlines, and Immigration New Zealand who met 80 pre-registered Indian buyers. Steven Dixon, Regional Manager South & South East Asia, Tourism New Zealand, who is leading the New Zealand delegation, says, “Kiwi Link is aimed at educating our trade partners about the destination and understanding their clients’ requirements. Last year, we held it in Mumbai and New Delhi but this time we will focus only on Mumbai.” Tourism New Zealand will also be hosting key buyers from around India in Mumbai for the first two days of the event. He added that the tourism board is looking to invest heavily in India. “We will invest more with our travel partners which means we will be having a lot of communication with them, educate them about New Zealand and understand the requirements of Indian travellers. This year ending May 2016, we recorded tourist arrivals of 48,000 from India, which is an increase from 45,000 Indians we received last year. But our research says that there are a lot more people in India who want to visit New Zealand,” Dixon says. He revealed that Tourism New Zealand has a total budget of USD 8 million but refused to comment on the number that has been directed to India.