Canterbury’s Breathtaking Scenery Leaves Visitors Wanting More

2/03/10

Christchurch and Canterbury's breath-taking scenery and relaxing vibe is winning over visitors, with a new survey showing the vast majority cannot wait to return.

The just released Regional Visitor Monitor (RVM) examines how visitors perceive the region and is based on interviews with 300 visitors from around New Zealand and the world.

It shows the vast majority of visitors are interested in returning to the region (57% are "very interested'', 35% are ''quite interested''). Indeed the extent of visitors' interest in returning to Christchurch and Canterbury is second only to that of visitors to Queenstown.

Australian visitors are particularly impressed by our scenery and rate Christchurch and Canterbury more highly, in terms of overall satisfaction, than Auckland, Wellington, Rotorua or Dunedin.

More than one in 10 of the Australians who visited Christchurch and Canterbury in the past year went skiing or snowboarding while here.

Generally international visitors ranked most highly those visitor attractions that allowed them to interact with nature.

"As a region which stretches from the ocean to the snow-capped Alps we're blessed with some amazing scenery and clearly that's proving a big draw card for our visitors,'' says Christchurch & Canterbury Tourism chief executive Christine Prince.

"Canterbury is like a giant outdoor playground for them. Everywhere they turn there is something different to grab their interest, something new to try. The diversity of what we offer I think is reflected in the high numbers of visitors who are keen to come back. We have so much to offer you can't do it all in one trip - you have to keep coming back.''

The RVM was developed as a joint venture between the Ministry of Tourism, Tourism New Zealand, and New Zealand’s six largest Regional Tourism Organisations (RTOs).

Using standardised surveys, the RVM gathers information from each region about visitors’ motivations and expectations, travel planning and patterns of visitor activity, visitor satisfaction, and visitor expenditure

The RTOs can then use the result to guide their decision-making and to track changes in their region over time.