Destination-nz.com travel website blazes a trail for ‘experiential’ travellers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) November 8, 2007 -- Travellers are invited to 'live, breathe and experience New Zealand' as TML Publishing launches their newly re-developed flagship destination-nz.com travel website.

Touted by Lonely Planet New Zealand as a “resourceful site with an excellent listing of websites’’. Since its launch in 1997 the site has been at the forefront of New Zealand travel resources, offering in-depth information for New Zealand tourists. In its new incarnation, the site aims to provide even more information than before.

It’s got over 250 base pages of travel information and operator listings covering accommodation, transport, activities and attractions. But there’s another key aspect of the new website that differentiates it from other travel resources, and that’s wrapped up in the buzzword 'experiential'.

Experiential marketing is a hot topic in the travel industry. Rather than enticing would-be visitors to a destination based on what they will see (think pictures of pretty landscapes), experiential marketing aims to give travellers a taste of what their vacation will feel like. It may sound a little touchy-feely, but it’s giving the New Zealand tourism industry an edge over other destinations. Tourism New Zealand are on board with the concept and have just launched a new experiential advertising campaign – a YouTube version of their television ad is already embedded on the destination-nz.com home page.

'Define your experience' options on destination-nz.com invite users to imagine the kind of holiday they want, whether restful and relaxing or adrenaline-pumping. There’s also a 'Live Like a Kiwi' section that gives readers the feel of real Kiwi lifestyle and pop culture. There are links to YouTube videos of Kiwi musicians, a 'Kiwi-ese' dictionary of colloquial slang, and even recipes for Anzac biscuits and Pavlova, giving travellers a chance to have a taste of New Zealand before they arrive.

TML Publishing CEO Andrea Rickerby is quick to point out that the current incarnation of the website is still only Phase I, with major interactive socialisation features planned for Phase II.

'We’ve got our finger on the pulse of key trends and developments happening in the online sphere,' she explains. 'The popularity of blogging, podcasting, instant chat, online forums and the trend towards video-sharing and social networking utilities like YouTube and Facebook are changing the way people interact on the web. We’ve got plans to evolve destination-nz.com to incorporate more interactivity and enhance the user experience. It’s going to be like no other travel site out there.'

TML Publishing, a New Zealand-based travel & leisure publishing company, has a history of being one step ahead of technology trends – they were early adopters of internet technology and were among the first to produce promotional CDs and DVDs for the travel industry – and if their history is anything to go by, the destination-nz.com website will continue to push the boundaries of current technology.

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