For the past week, Tasmania has been under the eye of our closest international neighbours.
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Tourism Tasmania chief executive John Fitzgerald spent time in New Zealand enticing travel agents to attract tourists to the state.
It is the first time in at least eight years a trip like this has taken place across the Tasman.
"It's been really good. Obviously, people in New Zealand and Tassie think we're a little bit like each other," he said.
"We had over 110 people show up in Auckland and when we sent the invitations we thought we might get 40. To get over 100 shows New Zealand agents are selling Australia, but are excited to find out about the state."
Mr Fitzgerald also spent time in Wellington and Christchurch.
"We've got about 23,000 Kiwis visiting Tassie every year and that's been growing," he said.
Mr Fitzgerald said the benefit of attracting New Zealanders to Tasmania was its close proximity.
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"We have to stay focused on the markets where we think there is an opportunity, and we now see enough opportunity out of New Zealand to try and activate the market a bit more," he said.
"They understand because experiences are aligned. They're big nature lovers and they love their fresh produce, so the food and wine will be important to them."
Hobart Airport is progressing to become an international airport, with the federal government announcing $80 million in funding to process international visitors. Mr Fitzgerald said being able to receive international flights would benefit the state, and that New Zealand was likely to be a country with good opportunity for Tasmania.
Next steps
In the past 12 months, Tourism Tasmania has been working on its brand. The last brand review was completed about six years ago.
The promotional body recognised there had been a number of changes to the state during that time.
"It's not a revolution, it's an evolution. We just wanted to make sure we were keeping pace with what the market thought about us and who we thought we were ourselves, so we've done a bit of work on that," Mr Fitzgerald said.
Tourism Tasmania is looking at new creative agencies for a new direction after using the "go behind the scenes" platform for the past six years.
"Whilst we haven't ruled out continuing that, some of our work will start to look a bit different from what it's looked like over the last few years," Mr Fitzgerald said.
"It's just another change up for Tassie because we want to keep ahead of the pack."
A new creative proposition is expected by September this year.
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The marketing body has also spent a lot of time looking at who the state's customers are.
"We've looked at all the segments in the market. I think people often assume we're just out advertising to the whole of Australia, but we're not. We're pretty scientific about who we're trying to talk to," Mr Fitzgerald said.
"We're trying to figure out who is going to travel in the next couple of years, and of those, we really only want to have a conversation with about 30 per cent."
The targeted 30 per cent is believed to be more aligned to the state. Mr Fitzgerald said the people aren't categorised necessarily by age, but more what Tourism Tasmania understands the tourist's needs to be. Just a couple of the main market segments will be targeted.
Mr Fitzgerald said one segment is more interested in Tasmania's cultural offerings and would like to be based in more urban areas and stay for a short time, and the other would stay longer and travel further.
"So as well as being active in the markets, like we have been in New Zealand all this week, we're planning for what is our next thing in terms of trying to stay ahead of the game."
We just wanted to make sure we were keeping pace with what the market thought about us and who we thought we were ourselves.
- John Fitzgerald