‘Ongoing advert’: New Zealand tourism still draws in film fans

The film industry contributes $3.5bn annually to New Zealand’s economy. The sector also forms a key part of how the country is marketed to visitors, driven largely by the film sets of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films.

Taika Waititi starred in a recent advertising campaign to promote TV series Our Flag Means Death and New Zealand as a travel destination

The enduring popularity of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films is still attracting tourists to New Zealand in droves nearly 25 years after the trilogy was filmed at around 150 locations dotted across both the north and south island of the country.

The film industry contributes about $3.5bn to the New Zealand economy annually, and the sector also forms a key part of how the country is marketed to visitors.

According to New Zealand’s 2019 International Visitor Survey, approximately one in five people said they became interested in ­visiting the country because of The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit.

This interest has also converted to visits. Over the past year (ending September 2023), a survey found that 34 per cent of international holidaymakers visited a film location, film tour or experience during their stay.

Australia is New Zealand’s largest tourist market and so-called “set-jetting” (referring to travellers who seek out film sets abroad) has drawn 23 per cent of Australian visitors to film locations, the latest survey found.

Future demand is also strong. The survey revealed film locations are especially popular draw cards for Australian visitors, 78 per cent of whom were seriously considering New Zealand for a holiday in the future said they were interested in visiting a film set or a film location in New Zealand.

Tourism New Zealand chief executive Rene de Monchy said The Lord of the Rings was delivering long-term gains to the country’s tourism industry: “People are still discovering this content. People (are) still seeing those movies for the first time. So they’re like an ongoing ad for New Zealand.”

To leverage the star-power for films shot on location in New Zealand, the tourism board, in collaboration with the New Zealand Film Commission, has produced ad campaigns that promote locally filmed TV series and movies.

Most recently, it launched an ad campaign starring actor and filmmaker Taika Waititi, one of the country’s creative national treasures, following the release of comedy television series Our Flag Means Death.

The campaign was filmed during the series’ second season in collaboration with “100% Pure New Zealand”, a tagline that was first created as part of Tourism New Zealand’s global brand in 1999.

Mr De Monchy said: “We presented a couple of ideas to (Waititi), and then we let him run with his creativity to tell the story”. The advertisement, titled There’s No Place Like It On Earth, was directed by Jackie van Beek, who also stars in the ­campaign. It’s not the first time Waititi has made a creative splash in the advertising world, either, having directed a globally cele­brated 2022 advertisement for ­Belvedere vodka starring Daniel Craig, among others.

International tourism is a sector still in recovery post-Covid and New Zealand’s numbers are steadily increasing.

By December 2023, New Zealand recorded 1,252,197 Australian arrivals, 505,779 of which were holiday arrivals. It represents a ­recovery of about 83 per cent ­compared to January-to-December 2019 visitor numbers.

“What Covid reminded us is that it’s against our DNA to not be able to travel,” Mr De Monchy said. “Travel is a luxury to some extent. But it’s also, I think, an ingrained human desire to travel and connect with people and explore. And to me, it’s not just a frivolous expense.”

Rene de Monchy is chief executive of Tourism New Zealand

Tourism New Zealand continued marketing throughout the pandemic, albeit at a reduced level.

The tourism board proposed the continuation of its advertising and marketing activities at the beginning of the pandemic to the government.

“Thankfully, they supported that,” Mr De Monchy said.

The agency advocated at the time, supported by marketing effectiveness evidence that “making sure that we remain on people’s radar, that we remain on people’s bucket list, that we remain desirable, keeping that audience primed and interested, is going to pay dividends – and I think it did”.

He added that combined with pent-up demand for travel, New Zealand benefited from a fast recovery when borders reopened.

“I was pleased we did that, because I think as a small, faraway country, particularly beyond Australia, we could have been forgotten a little bit.”

New Zealand’s post-Covid investment in advertising also included a new global campaign in 2022 titled If You Seek – the first in two years – which came from creative advertising agency DDB Aotearoa. The content appealed to audience’s sense of curiosity, inviting travellers to explore the country’s natural wonders and ­culture.

While the film industry continues to draw visitors to New Zealand, Mr De Monchy explained other major cultural events, such as FIFA Women’s World Cup were also offering opportunities to drive growth. Skiing in winter is also a draw for Australian visitors, as well as the broader range of activities that centre on adventure, the country’s natural beauty, food, wine and culture.

“Travel is an emotional decision,” Mr De Monchy said. “It’s not just a rational decision. And probably even more so if you’re travelling to New Zealand (maybe less so for Australians), but for the rest of the world, we’re quite a long way away – so you’ve got to be emotionally invested in that idea. You’ve got to fall in love with the idea of travelling to New Zealand.

“Tourism and travel is such a competitive space. We need to cut through, and creativity in its broadest sense, is a great way to do that.”