Time for touchdown - is your business ready?

The new flights present significant opportunities for Southland businesses! Here's what you need to know to make the most of the opportunities they bring:

The flight schedule 

Letting people know

Southland has established a regional partnership group that is committed to working with Air New Zealand to promote this new flight service. To date there have been two major campaigns, ‘Find yourself speechless in Southland’ aimed at the inbound audience residing in Auckland and further afield, and ‘Auckland, put the jug on’ which has been targeted at Southlanders to emphasise just how easy it to travel to Auckland for both business and leisure.

Accommodation and where to eat

With flights arriving at 9:35 pm at night, it’s important that we have the infrastructure and activities in place to welcome people. To help encourage this, we’ve been working with our local hospitality industry to ensure that when people arrive into Invercargill there are places open to eat, stay and transport available to get them there. Making sure we have options available at this time of night is essential to encouraging repeat visitation and ensuring that we can all benefit from increased visitor traffic! To support this, Invercargill Airport will be running a shuttle to and from the airport.

Welcoming visitors

There will be a temporary i-SITE set up at the Invercargill airport for the first month of the direct flight service. This will provide visitors to Invercargill, particularly those that arrive on the 9:35 pm flight, with information on where to stay and eat, what to do and options for getting around Invercargill and wider Southland. As an extension of the i-SITE in Wachner Place, visitors will be able to make activity and travel bookings and pick up flyers and brochures on Southern activities. You can contact the i-SITE for more information to ensure your business’s details are best advertised.

Understanding who is travelling

Along with the temporary i-SITE being set up, we will also be gaining an understanding of who is using the new flight service so we can best meet their needs. This will help us to identify trends for business and leisure travellers and ensure that we can continue to leverage further opportunities for increased visitation. We will share these findings with you in a few months’ time so you can also see how your business might benefit and be more involved.