They\u2019re the surcharge on your Uber Eats order; the $4.50 credit card charge at the dairy. <\/p>\n
Nobody hops off a long-haul flight buzzing at the prospect of a new fee.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s flip it. Reverse it. Forget the border tax. What we need are border gift bags.<\/p>\n
Think about it. <\/p>\n
You didn\u2019t go to that fertiliser conference for the keynote speaker. <\/p>\n
You went for the free stuff \u2013 the branded beanie, the stress ball, the slightly dodgy USB stick that\u2019ll one day corrupt your laptop.<\/p>\n
So why not do the same for our tourists? <\/p>\n
Step off a 12-hour flight from Dallas, Shanghai, or D\u00fcsseldorf, and boom \u2013 someone\u2019s there with a tote bag.<\/p>\n
Now that\u2019s a welcome. <\/p>\n
More heartfelt than Dave Dobbyn himself singing Welcome Home at Gate 14.<\/p>\n
The question, of course, is what goes in the bag. <\/p>\n
It has to be the good stuff. The things that say \u201cNew Zealand\u201d in a way no glossy pamphlet ever could. <\/p>\n
First up, Vogel\u2019s bread. Kiwi as. The chewy, seedy, dental-work-challenging loaf that foreigners will assume is some sort of artisanal building material. <\/p>\n
But here\u2019s the genius: once they have Vogel\u2019s, they\u2019ll need butter.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, they\u2019re shopping.<\/p>\n
We could include a small jar of Marmite. Not enough to terrify them, but just enough to confuse them. <\/p>\n
A rite of passage. They\u2019ll go home saying, \u201cWe ate this salty tar stuff the locals seem very proud of\u201d.<\/p>\n
Then, a pair of jandals. Not flash Havaianas. <\/p>\n
The $3.99 ones that slice between your toes like a cheese-cutter wire. The true Kiwi experience. <\/p>\n
And when one inevitably snaps mid-stride on a black sand beach, that\u2019s another purchase right there. <\/p>\n
Tourism dollars flowing straight into the Jandal Replacement Economy (JRE).<\/p>\n
Of course, a sachet of Wattie\u2019s Tomato Sauce would be compulsory. <\/p>\n
Not the squeezy bottle, just the foil pack \u2013 ideally one that\u2019s impossible to tear open without scissors, teeth, or divine intervention. <\/p>\n
And when you finally do prise it open, the sauce doesn\u2019t dribble politely. Oh no. It erupts like Ruapehu, blasting straight down the front of your shirt. <\/p>\n
Instant souvenir. Instant excuse to go shopping for a new outfit. Once again \u2013 economic growth.<\/p>\n
And let\u2019s sweeten things up with a Whittaker\u2019s Peanut Slab. <\/p>\n
We need them addicted to something that isn\u2019t just sheep photos and Instagram shots of Lake Tekapo.<\/p>\n
We could even tailor the bags by region. <\/p>\n
Land in Christchurch? Here\u2019s a \u201cBuild Your Own Cathedral\u201d Lego set, complete with two half-built spires, so you can really capture the authentic skyline. <\/p>\n
Arrive in Wellington? Have a reusable KeepCup and a cardigan that won\u2019t actually protect you from the southerly. <\/p>\n
Auckland? We\u2019ll just give you a traffic cone. Tourists will feel immediately immersed in the local culture.<\/p>\n
Gift bags don\u2019t just say \u201cwelcome.\u201d They also unlock consumer behaviour.<\/p>\n
Give them Vogel\u2019s, they\u2019ll buy spreads. <\/p>\n
Give them a KeepCup, they\u2019ll buy flat whites. <\/p>\n
Give them jandals, they\u2019ll be shopping for plasters in no time. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s classic marketing psychology. <\/p>\n
Make people feel looked after, and they\u2019ll open their wallets. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s why your dentist gives you a free toothbrush before billing you $780.<\/p>\n
Plus, gift bags beat visitor levies hands down in the PR stakes. <\/p>\n
Imagine the headlines: \u201cNZ charges tourists $50 on arrival\u201d. Versus: \u201cNZ greets visitors with free chocolate and tomato sauce\u201d.<\/p>\n
Which one\u2019s going to get more clicks?<\/p>\n
Because at the end of the day, tourism isn\u2019t about numbers. It\u2019s about stories. <\/p>\n
Tourists don\u2019t go home raving about the efficiency of the border levy system. <\/p>\n
They go home telling people about the bag they were handed as they shuffled through arrivals, stuffed with bread, chocolate, and a sachet of Wattie\u2019s that\u2019s suspiciously sticky, just like you at the fertiliser conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019re the surcharge on your Uber Eats order; the $4.50 credit card charge at the dairy. Nobody hops…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1443,21933,1558,138,21935,219,2082,19134,21932,21934,21080,21936,9812,117,111,139,69,1111,21937,223,10097,14047,6923,80,2963],"class_list":["post-20829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-about","tag-bags","tag-been","tag-business","tag-dwight","tag-economy","tag-for","tag-forward","tag-gift","tag-glenn","tag-ive","tag-lately","tag-needs","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-reading","tag-regrow","tag-the","tag-tourism","tag-way","tag-what","tag-zealand","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}