Ashburton District Council is paying influencers to show off the region as part of its district promotion strategy.
It's costing ratepayers about $7000 but district promotions lead Shelley Donnelly said the paid-for content is creating profit for local businesses.
Donnelly has been engaging specific influencers based on their audience.
Influencer Lilia Alexander recently shared posts of her jetboating the Rakaia Gorge, in a hot tub while glamping and visiting the Ashburton Aviation Museum.
The social media posts can capture "lots of likes, shares, and saves which can be vanity metrics", but the aim is boosting the economy, Donnelly said.
"It's money in the bank that we want to see. The revenue for our operators and that's the feedback I'm definitely getting".
Donnelly said feedback from local operators showed the influencer posts had boosted business.
Peter Sommers who runs Dirt Bandits, a UTV motorsport experience in Methven, participated in the promotion.
He said he had a busy December on the back of some influencer posts and felt it was money well spent.
"The influencers produced good content and the engagement with their audience is quite high.
"If they influence their audience, it's small dollars."
Sommers praised Donelly's work in promoting the district and noted that the participating tourism operators were providing experiences for the influencers.
"It's not like we are sitting back getting the council to do all the work, we are vested in the process."
Traditionally Methven dies after the ski season shuts but hasn't this year, he said.
"I can't say it's especially what Shelly and her team are doing but something is working.
"More tourists are visiting Methven and the district."
The Museum doesn't ask where visitors found out about the venue, but will when its new facility - currently being constructed- opens, he said.
Council compliance and development group manager Ian Hyde said the council is spending about $7000, which is about 4 percent of the $160,590 district promotion budget for 2024/25, hosting five content creator visits in the district.
The visits included New Zealand travel content creator Lilia Alexander spending a week in December visiting 19 operators, with one TikTok video at Erewhon Station having over 2.1 million views.
Over 4000 photos and videos were commissioned through Alexander's visit that operators and Experience Mid Canterbury (the tourism arm of the council) can use in their own promotional activities.
Alexander said using social media is cost-effective as she is able to produce videos "at a much lower cost than traditional professional videography and film crew style commercials".
"Viewers these days simply don't want to see a commercial, they want to see a real person's experience, captured in a way that feels organic and relatable."
Another to visit the district in January was Brit Cunningham, a social media influencer from Auckland with over 5,000 TikTok followers.
Donnelly said her followers, predominantly women aged 25 to 40 in Australia and New Zealand, "send her photos of what they are doing that she did - to try and live her life".
Kia Ora from Ashburton
A travel writer from Air New Zealand's in-flight magazine, Kia Ora, also spent five days in Mid Canterbury in January.
Donnelly said the writer raved about her experience - apart from "one flat tyre in the conservation park" - and the article will feature in the April magazine.
Hyde said the council did not pay the writer but covered expenses of about $700 for the trip.
By Jonathan Leask, Local Democracy Reporter
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
