NZ Attempts To Bring Back Aussie Tourists

New Zealand - Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism has launched a campaign to lure back tourists from Australia.The campaign was created by Iris Sydney, which won the account following a pitch.Aiming to address the decline in the number of visitors from its largest market since its February 2011 earthquake, the tongue-in-cheek campaign runs in two phases.Launched yesterday, the first phase aims to get Australians talking about Christchurch in a positive way, with Bob Parker, mayor of Christchurch, asking Australia to lend them their "Big Thing" icons to attract Aussie tourists.Over a series of three episodes, Parker (pictured) is filmed visiting iconic "Big Things" around Australia, such as the big merino in Goulburn and the big pineapple on the Sunshine Coast, as if in a documentary.The campaign runs online and in newspapers in Sydney and Melbourne."Australians got used to seeing Mayor Bob Parker as the face of the Christchurch earthquake disaster in 2011. We decided to flip that, making him the face of the good news in 2012, taking advantage of some Aussie Kiwi banter whilst we're at it," Tom Hoskins, creative director of Iris Sydney, said.The second phase, called the Discovery Stream, is set to launch in October, showcasing what's happening in Christchurch.A microsite will feature real-time content from visitors and residents showing what they are currently seeing in the city. A grassroots campaign will also be launched simultaneously in the city through tourism operators to encourage visitors to share their images."This campaign sets out to address Australia's misconceptions of Christchurch as a tourist destination, by providing a lens into the ever-evolving city and replacing the images of the earthquake that visitors have previously held onto," Hoskins said.