Tourism New Zealand Taps Nat Geo and Travel Advisors to Experience Manaakitanga

In the first global campaign of its kind, Tourism New Zealand is leveraging the advocacy and influence of past visitors, travel advisors, New Zealanders, and National Geographic Travel Explorers to encourage those actively considering a trip to New Zealand to plan and book their holiday.

This is often referred to in New Zealand as manaakitanga, an indigenous Māori concept representing a unique style of hospitality, generosity, and kindness.

In a new digital content series from National Geographic Travel, viewers will see and hear from Contributing Editor Heather Greenwood Davis, Photographer Erika Larsen and Illustrator Christoph Niemann as they experience manaakitanga and explore the connections between New Zealand’s people, land, and culture.

“New Zealand has long been known for its stunning landscapes. What we hear from visitors, however, is that it’s the local people and warm sense of welcome they receive that makes it such a special, memorable place… Last year’s partnership with Bryce Dallas Howard led to an additional 1.5 million U.S. travelers planning and booking travel to New Zealand. We also saw an increase of 11 percent in U.S. visitor spend, so we are confident this kind of quality influencer marketing is working. By weaving in the trade element and sharing the story of our people and culture, we’re very optimistic about this campaign’s potential to bring visitors to our shores." 

Stephen England-Hall, Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive,

The .1 million USD partnership will leverage more than 100 pieces of content across National Geographic Travel’s digital, social, and print properties in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Germany, the U.K., Australia, and India. The five-month campaign will be further amplified across Tourism New Zealand’s digital channels.

To assist potential travelers inspired by the content, a matching digital campaign will be launched in tandem across the travel trade. Six travel advisor influencers from the U.K., Germany and the U.S. will star in a social media campaign and a series of training videos that follow their own journeys of manaakitanga.

In both series of content, local New Zealanders from Kaikōura, Nelson Tasman, and the Bay of Plenty welcome the visitors and share their personal stories and beliefs of what makes New Zealand so unique.

National Geographic Travel Content: Global, U.K., Germany, Brazil

“We are thrilled to continue our creative partnership with Tourism New Zealand for the second year. We began an exciting digital campaign last year with Bryce Dallas Howard as TNZ’s spokesperson and have now expanded our New Zealand story telling by featuring an illustrator, photographer and family travel expert. Each capturing the spirit of New Zealand and it’s people through their own unique lens and sharing their experiences with our Nat Geo consumers across this global campaign.” 

Deborah Armstrong, EVP of National Geographic Partners,

National Geographic Partners LLC:

National Geographic Partners LLC (NGP), a joint venture between National Geographic and 21st Century Fox, is committed to bringing the world premium science, adventure and exploration content across an unrivaled portfolio of media assets. NGP combines the global National Geographic television channels (National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, Nat Geo MUNDO, Nat Geo PEOPLE) with National Geographic’s media and consumer-oriented assets, including National Geographic magazines; National Geographic studios; related digital and social media platforms; books; maps; children’s media; and ancillary activities that include travel, global experiences and events, archival sales, licensing and e-commerce businesses. Furthering knowledge and understanding of our world has been the core purpose of National Geographic for 131 years, and now we are committed to going deeper, pushing boundaries, going further for our consumers … and reaching millions of people around the world in 172 countries and 43 languages every month as we do it. NGP returns 27 percent of our proceeds to the nonprofit National Geographic Society to fund work in the areas of science, exploration, conservation and education. For more information visit natgeotv.com or nationalgeographic.com, or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

Tourism New Zealand

Tourism New Zealand is the organisation responsible for marketing New Zealand to the world as a tourist destination.

Tourism New Zealand is a Crown Entity funded by the New Zealand Government and established under the New Zealand Tourism Board Act 1991. It is led by a Board of Directors appointed by the Minister of Tourism and has a team of around 150 staff in 13 offices around the world. From humble beginnings, it is now the oldest tourism marketing department in the world.

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Media Contacts:

Heather Wyatt, Heather.Wyatt@natgeo.com
Kelsey Taylor, Kelsey.Taylor@natgeo.com