Tourism New Zealand asks Australians to stop dreaming & just visit already

Created in partnership with Special Group Australia, the new campaign addresses the emotional longing among Australian tourists to visit New Zealand.

New Zealand Tourism has launched a new campaign to nudge tourists to visit the island country. The campaign is designed to tap into people's renewed desire to explore and showcases New Zealand's natural environment, experiences, and the warmth of people there. The team is seeing longer itineraries being booked by Australians, a factor that can help support travel to more remote locations within New Zealand.

The 'Stop Dreaming about New Zealand and Go' campaign features an Australian who dreams about New Zealand and is then guided through a range of New Zealand attractions including National Parks and stargazing with a surreal giant Kiwi.  The activity has been launched ahead of the New Zealand ski season, tipped to be a major driver of travel for Australians over winter, and Tourism New Zealand will work closely with the industry to support them to leverage it and attract Australian visitors.     

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"The work seeks to inspire Australians to stop dreaming and encourage them to seize the opportunity to come to New Zealand,” says Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive René de Monchy.   

“Despite record numbers of Kiwis ‘doing something new’ and travelling domestically, there is an estimated $12.9 billion annual gap from the loss of international visitors. The return of Australian visitors will go some way to helping reduce this gap, with both domestic and Australians about 70% of the pre-Covid visitor market," he added.

Destination Queenstown Interim Chief Executive Ann Lockhart says: "Australia is a hugely important visitor market for Queenstown, Particularly over winter when Australian visitors previously made up around 50% of all of our international visitors.

"The ability to welcome them here is a huge boost for Queenstown and we are delighted the trans-Tasman bubble is open and our tourism operators are open and ready to welcome our Australian friends back," she added.