A campaign to encourage Australian female family ‘‘decision-makers'' and ‘‘empty-nesters'' to experience Dunedin in winter has begun.
Dunedin City Council agency Enterprise Dunedin has joined local tourism operators, Air New Zealand, TripAdvisor and others to create the Where the Wild Things Are campaign.
The campaign, costing $120,000, began yesterday. It will promote events such as the Wild Dunedin Festival, the Midwinter Carnival, Dunedin Cadbury Chocolate Carnival and Jaffa Race, the International Science Festival and Puaka Matariki celebrations to women who made the decisions in families and ‘‘empty nester'' couples in Australia.
Enterprise Dunedin director John Christie said his organisation had spent $50,000 on the campaign, and had cash contributions worth $20,000 and in-kind funding of $50,000 from 10 partners.
Those partners would benefit directly from the extra visitors to the city.
Mr Christie said the campaign's key aim was to promote Dunedin to the Australian and domestic visitor market as a destination during winter.
‘‘We are bringing in a very specific group of people we know will be attracted to those events.''
The campaign was targeting families, and mothers in the 30 to 50-year-old age bracket who were decision-makers for families.
Many of the events promoted were family events.
As well, the campaign targeted empty-nesters, and the older women in that demographic who made decisions.
‘‘They do a lot of short-break travel to the likes of New Zealand.''
There was no specific number the campaign wanted to attract, ‘‘but obviously we're looking at overall growth for the city''.
Two Facebook competitions, with a trip to Dunedin prize, would directly target key sectors in the Australian market. Enterprise Dunedin's partners in the tourism industry had created special offers and discounted rates for the campaign.
Mr Christie said the council's legal team had checked copyright on the campaign's name - the same as a 1963 children's picture book by American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak - and had been given permission.
