Visiting New Zealand’s South Island for a holiday is one of the best ways you can help the kiwi people and their economy recover from the series of disastrous Christchurch Earthquakes in late 2010/early 2011.
According to Statistics NZ Tourism plays a significant role in the New Zealand economy in terms of the production of goods and services and the creation of employment opportunities.
The tourism industry directly employs about 5% of the New Zealand workforce and there are an even greater number of people employed in service industry jobs that indirectly benefit from tourism expenditure.
Photos of what Christchurch looked like after the quake can be seen on Flickr.
I’ve visited New Zealand’s South Island three times previously for personal holidays and work trips and thoroughly enjoyed the wide variety of landscapes and wildlife that I saw and photographed. The photo slideshow below is from my 2009 trip to Christchurch, Lake Tekapo and Mount Cook.
This week I’ll be going on a 5 day trip in the Canterbury and Wanaka regions of New Zealand’s South Island as a guest of Tourism NZ and Air NZ, along with other journalists from Fairfax, Yahoo7! and News Ltd.
The two main aims are to go to the cordoned off area of Christchurch CBD and report on progress for plans to rebuild the city as well as writing about tourist attractions in the surrounding region for YHA Backpacker Essentials Magazine, taking photos/videos to publish on this site and writing 2 travel technology stories for GEARE Magazine.
DISCLAIMER: Almost all expenses for this trip were covered by Tourism New Zealand, regional NZ tourism bodies and Air New Zealand which flies daily to Christchurch from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. At the moment return Air NZ flights Sydney to Christchurch are a touch over $400. I choose what topics I want to write about on this trip and what I say about them, Tourism NZ has no editorial control.
I agree, we’re off there in a couple of months….
What a wonderful post. Tourism not only assists in mending local economies after tragedies such as the one that hit New Zealand, it helps to rebuild confidence within the communities affected.
As a fellow blogger, I also appreciate the disclaimer at the bottom of the post. Blogger outreach programs are an important marketing tool and in my opinion very ethical as long as it is disclosed in the writers articles. It is a shame that many other bloggers don’t share your same ethics.
I enjoy the Road Less Travelled Blog and your articles, and I look forward to reading your future work.
Aj
http://disneytraveller.com/
Superb!! Post I will keep visiting…
Jennifer Lopez
Flooded Basement