Early triumphs for Tourism New Zealand’s new MICE direction

TOURISM New Zealand, which has recently shifted more of its attention to the international business events segment, has scored two major event wins.

Sharing the good news with TTGmice e-Weekly during the New Zealand Week in Kuala Lumpur late March, Mischa Mannix-Opie, regional manager South & South East Asia for Tourism New Zealand, said Auckland had won hosting rights to the Asian Patent Attorneys Association Council Meeting 2017. The event is expected to attract 1,600 intellectual property lawyers, primarily from the Asia-Pacific region, and generate an estimated economic value of NZ$4,095,200 (US$ 3,531,966) for the destination.

New Zealand’s second win is the Asia Pacific Wind Engineering 2017, secured by the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Auckland University. Some 300 delegates are expected and the event will generate an estimated economic value of NZ$850,750.

Mannix-Opie described the business events sector as “a high value market segment”.

“International conference delegates spend an average of more than NZ$3,000, compared with the average leisure visitor who spends on average less than NZ$3,000,” she explained.

She identified China, India, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand as key MICE markets for Tourism New Zealand. The tourism board intends to focus efforts on courting corporate incentives and conferences from Singapore, and on corporate incentives from the other Asian markets.

Tourism New Zealand is also hoping to encourage more business events delegates to stay on for leisure.

These objectives are supported by the Tourism New Zealand’s 100% Pure New Zealand – Beyond Convention campaign which was launched globally last September, targeting associations, conference organisers and corporate decision-makers in key markets such as the US, Australia, China and South-east Asia.

Tourism New Zealand also works closely with a dedicated business events team in various initiatives to grow quality leads. These include sales calls, training, attendance and coordination of the sector at trade shows, familiarisation trips for decision-makers, and the development of online content and sales tools. It also manages the Conference Assistance Programme, on behalf of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, which is aimed at securing international conferences to New Zealand.

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