12 November 2014 at 9:00 am
Education in focus at Tourism Summit
Last week Education New Zealand Chief Executive, Grant McPherson, spoke at the Tourism Industry Association Summit held at Te Papa in Wellington.
The summit focused on Tourism 2025, a framework aimed to achieve economic growth in the tourism industry including an aspirational goal to reach $41 billion in annual earnings by 2025.
Grant was on a panel discussing the ‘target for value’ opportunities. International students and their families and friends are identified in the framework as one of the target markets that could deliver significant economic benefit to New Zealand.
“I was keen to take the chance to remind the tourism industry that we are all part of the NZ Inc team. Raising awareness is important for both industries – people need to know about New Zealand to consider us as a destination as a student and a tourist,” said Grant.
“With more than 97,000 international students, and growing, coming to New Zealand each year, that is 97,000 potential tourists who are in the main young, highly motivated and skilled communicators on social media. These students return home as advocates for New Zealand if we give them an experience of a lifetime – inspiring the next set of students and family and friends to come to this country.
“And we know family and friends visit international students while they are studying in New Zealand, particularly around graduation or at the end of their programme so there are valuable connections to be made there.
“The industry roadmaps tasked us with working more closely with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and Tourism New Zealand, finding opportunities for joined up activities with shared market intelligence and shared services.
“Recent edu-tourism campaigns in Brazil and Japan targeting English language students gave us the chance to test the water working with Tourism New Zealand and 22 English Language Schools. Branded 100% Pure New Zealand we pitched this country as ‘the most exciting place to learn a new language’ and offered $300 of tourism activity with each enrolment during a specific timeframe.
“The campaign worked well in Brazil in particular, generating a lot of enquiries and we will continue to monitor the results to see how many of these turn into enrolments.
“At a more grassroots level, I encouraged tourism operators to meet with their local education institutions to understand the opportunities available to develop joint programmes or student-orientated initiatives. Tailoring services to the needs, ambitions and budgets of students will ensure they take some of the New Zealand spirit with them when they go home.
“And of course it is a two-way street - if tourism operators are engaging with young visitors and their families who are passionate about New Zealand, why not suggest they consider studying in New Zealand,” said Grant.
