More overseas visitors, more reasons to choose Kiwi when it comes to guest amenities in motels, guesthouses and B&Bs

Published on Dec 15, 2017

You’d have to have spent the past weeks under a rock not to have noticed that New Zealand is bursting at the seams with overseas visitors.

And coming at the end of a year in which major events such as the British & Irish Lions rugby tour and World Masters Games saw huge spikes in the demand for accommodation, it’s clear that opportunities for both cashing in and helping to create great visitor experiences has never been greater.

Hotels, motels, guesthouses, B&Bs and the growing number of holiday rentals via websites such as Airbnb are the backbone of New Zealand’s tourism industry and often the vanguard when it comes to our country making a great first impression on overseas visitors. And if you’re keen to make an impression, how you kit out your room when it comes to guest amenities and what you serve when it comes to food and beverages will play a vital role.

But first, the numbers – because they really are impressive and continue a year-on-year trend that’s been decades in the making.

Short-term visitors – those tourists, people visiting family and friends, and those who travel for business – set a new record in the year to November up 8% on the year earlier to reach 3.7 million according to Stats NZ.

Overseas holidaymakers also rose 8.6% to 1.9 million people.

International tourism is still the country’s largest export earner and is responsible for a fifth of earnings from all exports of goods and services.

Latest Government figures show tourism accounts for 5.6% gross domestic product and directly employs 230,793 people or 8.4 percent of the workforce.

Even the latest domestic tourism figures show there’s serious cash to be made in the industry with Kiwi tourists spending $21.4b in the year to March, up 4%.

Against the backdrop of a strong tourism sector, providing a consistent message is vital and New Zealand’s natural palette of indigenous plants and flowers as well as our strong environmental message provides an ideal focus.

In many respects, our natural environment is the reason why so many visitors travel long distances to come here and they expect their accommodation to reflect their preconceptions.

And just as they’re likely to look for Kiwi items on the menu when they dine out, or visit peculiarly Kiwi attractions when they’re sight-seeing, so they ought to find uniquely Kiwi products in their guest accommodation.

HealthPak is the country’s only provider of New Zealand-sourced, New Zealand-made hair and skin care products using unique New Zealand ingredients. We have developed our ranges so that Kiwi accommodation businesses can help tell the stories of the places around them from the moment their guests step through their front door.

Our retail ranges ecostore and Therapy (produced in association with The Aromatherapy Company) are strong local brands and use natural ingredients from sustainable sources and the Therapy range includes an Environmental Guest Hair & Body Care Compendium Insert that outlines the eco credentials of the products and promotes your own environmentally friendly approach to sustainable tourism.

Over the past year, HealthPak has also invested in its own beaten copper still and launched its Thomson’s Distillery range as a way to ensure hyper-local Kiwi ingredients and provide guest amenities which have a great local storyline.

From the first moment an overseas tourist wakes up, showers and eats breakfast, HealthPak provides the chance to tell them about New Zealand’s unique environment – and gives them the ammunition to write those all-important positive reviews on social media, travel websites and apps. And when it comes to running a successful hotel, motel, B&B or guesthouse, those small extras can create a big difference.

For more information on HealthPak’s hotel and motel food and beverage supplies and other guest amenities contact us on +64 9 579 6268, at info@healthpak.co.nz or via the website.