New Zealand has much to offer beyond the movie industry spotlight.

Relatively small, in a remote corner of the world, New Zealand still manages to exert a major pull on airlines and tourists alike. Not surprisingly, allowing the unassuming to thrive seems to be a trademark of the country. Tucked away in the Wellington suburb of Miramar, for example, are the movie production facilities that developed The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movie trilogies.

The success of these blockbusters has helped grow New Zealand’s screen industry to support almost 3,000 associated businesses with important hubs in Auckland and the Queenstown/ Otago region, as well as Wellington. Tourists are flocking to the country on the back of this movie success, especially eager to see the Hobbit on movie set in Matamata, on New Zealand’s North Island.

Research by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research found that the marketing of New Zealand as Middle Earth has had a significant impact on tourism. Vacation arrivals into New Zealand are up around 7% compared with the previous year while visitors from the UK, a key target market, stay for an average 28 days. Gisella Carr, chief executive of Film New Zealand, says that most importantly in film-making terms, New Zealand is compact and accessible.

“We are about the size of California and it means that our beaches, our mountains, our warm north, our colder south, our hills, our flat lands, are all easily reached by production companies. And of course that’s economically important.”

Coming in from the cold

That colder South Island has strong appeal too. Christchurch International Airport, the main gateway to New Zealand’s South Island is another example of a small business punching well above its weight. Seat capacity was up 11% in the southern hemisphere summer season compared with the previous year, the largest increase across all New Zealand airports. Passenger numbers are surpassing even that growth statistic. The challenge is to keep the momentum going.

“Being a somewhat small airport, in a remote corner of the world, we need to be innovative in capturing the attention of potential visitors (and airlines to carry them) to entice them to visit our place,” accepts Matthew Findlay, general manager, Airlines and Alliances at Christchurch International Airport.

“This involves – depending on the market – sometimes quirky and often cleaver ways to tell our story. Being original in presenting our compelling reasons to add capacity and to grow markets, will be where we stand out from our global competitors.”

Christchurch International Airport is marketing itself in conjunction with several different agencies depending on the need of each existing or potential new airline entrant. Findlay notes that each airline serves different markets and has different needs and so the airport needs to tailor its engagement with other stakeholders to match the need of the customer airline.

“For instance, our engagement with Perth Airport to secure theseasonal Air New Zealand service was unique, and considered as being extraordinarily successful by the partner airlines, Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia,” he says.

The airport was completely transparent with the financial aspects of the agreement it was entering into with the airlines and, in turn, the airlines were completely transparent about the costs and revenues as well as the entire business case. Furthermore, the airport was able to bring on-board a number of stakeholders, beyond the usual tourism aspect, including businesses and exporters/importers.

The airport’s strategic imperative is to grow markets that can sustain air services, and are at a volume that would sustain an air service – or with a sustained marketing effort with partners, could be developed ready for an airline to take an active interest. “We don’t expend our efforts chasing tails or airlines/destinations that require extraordinary stimulation,” says Findlay. “Our efforts are spent investing in markets to prove we can support additional frequencies above organic growth or new services in markets we expect to secure services.”

Be it beautiful scenery, an adrenalin fix, relaxation or simply visiting one of the many movie sets in person, New Zealand has plenty to offer.