- Destination Great Lake Taupō (Love Taupō) and RotoruaNZ collaborate on a food tourism marketing campaign.
- Regional Tourism Boost Round 3 allocates $794,902 to Food Trails Aotearoa.
- Food Trails Aotearoa will develop up to eight new food trails, spanning the North Island and the top of the South Island.
Regional tourism agencies Destination Great Lake Taupō (Love Taupō) and RotoruaNZ are set to co-lead a new government-backed campaign promoting a series of new food tourism trails.
Food Trails Aotearoa — one of six initiatives announced today by Tourism and Hospitality Minister Louise Upston — will see the development of up to eight food trails, spanning the North Island and the top of the South Island.
The Food Trails Aotearoa campaign has received a grant of $794,902 from the Regional Tourism Boost fund which has just allocated a further $5 million dollar investment into promoting regional tourism. Each of the six marketing campaigns is aimed at attracting more international visitors into regional New Zealand.
Designed to link a gateway city to a self-drive regional journey, the food trails will be designed in a collaboration between New Zealand’s food bible Cuisine Magazine and the region featured.
“We’re thrilled to have the backing of the Regional Tourism Boost to bring this project to market,” said Destination Great Lake Taupō GM Patrick Dault, who spearheaded the project proposal.
“In one way, we’re proposing to do what the Michelin Guide couldn’t accomplish, taking our regional food stories to the world with an innovative series of food trails. Our proposition is that food is the reason to travel and regional New Zealand is the experience to book,” Dault said.
“Food is the thread but not the boundary. Trails can include accommodation, activities, culture, art, wellbeing, landscapes and outdoor experiences where they strengthen the journey. The objective, of course, is to disperse international visitors beyond gateway cities and into our productive and delectable regions.”
The trails will cover Northland, the Pacific coastline of Hawkes Bay, the central North Island, Taranaki and Whanganui, and the top of the South Island. Participating regions include Waikato, Ruapehu, Northland, Nelson Tasman, Marlborough, Bay of Plenty, Kaikoura, Taranaki.
“We’re privileged to have the esteemed Kelli Brett and her Cuisine team on board to lead the editorial curation, working with us and each region to identify the strongest people, places and stories highlighting significant experiences, regional culinary icons and hyper-local discoveries,” Dault said.
Targeting travellers from Australia and the United States, the digital campaign is due to go live by the beginning of October running until late January.
“From Australia, we’re appealing to food-curious couples and independent travellers who have 3 to 5 days to follow a trail starting in one of our gateway cities. From the US, we’re looking to a smaller number but higher value visitors ready to spend up to 10 days on their journey,” Dault said.
The Food Trails Aotearoa campaign will run for four months via channels that include online booking platform Expedia, and partner agencies Air New Zealand and Avis Budget Group.
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