You might be aware the Minister of Tourism announced a $3m Regional Tourism Boost Fund a few weeks ago. The single purpose of this contestable fund is to drive international visitation (and spending) to our region over the shoulder and winter months, specifically between 1 April – 30 September 2025. There are a number of specific criteria to access this money including the fact that proposals must be a collaboration with multiple regions. Therefore, Development West Coast have submitted two regional bids to access some of this funding. One, alongside central South Island regions as well as a separate proposal with the other Top of the South (TOTS) regions. Given the short lead time for conversion, these campaigns are targeting Australian consumers, and both provide opportunities for you and your business to be involved.
Development West Coast has been advised that the two submissions were accepted by MBIE - great news!
Christchurch NZ Campaign
For the first bid, ChristchurchNZ are the lead RTO and are collating winter deals and packages that we can promote in the campaign to drive visitation to our region. We are working with a PR agency in Australia to create significant awareness and help lift the profile of our regions within that market.
TOTS Campaign
For the second proposal with the TOTS regions, we have chosen to work with Luxury Escapes as our marketing and conversion partner and have been engaging with them throughout the application process over the past few weeks. Luxury Escapes are incredibly well known throughout Australia and therefore have significant reach through an extensive range of existing comms channels.
This is exciting news and we look forward to working with you to bring further Australian visitors to the Coast over the winter months.