Getting organised&

Getting going

A brief commentary on the NZ Backpacking sector

Riding the recession!

• Backpacking has proved robust in NZ– Total visitor arrivals down 2.8%– Backpackers up 2%

• Tourism bodies are paying attention again• Backpacking needed to seize the opportunity

• TNZ Backpacker marketing campaign• Share of mind against active cruise and luxury lobby• Re-establish sector group cred with

the sector

• Tourism New Zealand and NZBackpack.com led campaign to ‘Global Youth’ market

• Aimed at source markets and travellers already on the road

• Finding tangible opportunities to involve small and regional businesses

• Teaching TNZ how to market to our customers• Building some good will

Getting advocacy support

• Support from the Tourism Industry Assoc. (NZ version of ATE)– Secretarial and news distribution

• How to work with RTOs• Making ourselves useful – establishing our

role• Being realistic

Sector reconciliation!

• After nearly two years where 6 large organisations took a caretaker role NZBackpack.com was re-launched

• There are some long-term and entrenched factions in NZ Backpacking that needed to be brought back around the table

• Philosophical debates on ratings vs standards and access for small businesses

Credibility within the sector

• Delivering stuff the sector needs and wants• Conference – a stand out success– Specific, great speaker mix. PM closing – how do

we beat that next year!?– More a forum than being talked at– Broke down some old animosities• Big v small, YHA v BBH, customer ratings v Qualmark

• Continued work on governance, membership and involvement is needed

Looking forward

• Next quarterly meeting coming up• An ambitious hit list of– Governance– Advocacy– Marketing– Membership

Sharing expertise

• Backpacking has effectively organised and lobbied in Australia

• We look to learn from that opportunity• We will look for ways to work with BTAP, BOA,

BQ etc• We are committed to bringing something to

the table too – already lending you Dan Roberts!