Feb 13, 2018 - Mt Ruapehu is getting a new state of the art $25 million 50-cabin gondola. It will be the largest and most technically advanced in New Zealand travelling 1.8 kilometres and is on target to open for the start of the 2019 ski season.
The new gondola is expected to contribute $50m per annum of additional visitor expenditure, and an additional 137 full-time jobs at Whakapapa in the restaurants, maintenance, sales, retail and transport teams.
Source: TravelInc || February 13, 2018 |||
Feb 09, 2018 - With everything from food delivery to gym timetables only a click away, it makes sense that airlines would follow suit reports TravelWeekly. Virgin has unveiled the latest technology to make the life of a traveller easier, the world’s first pop-up check-in service.
Feb 09, 2018 - Christchurch Airport is preparing for its strongest Chinese New Year ever. Statistics show the airport’s Chinese visitor arrivals grew by 59% in December. In that month alone, we added 2,144 more Chinese visitor arrivals, more than 60% of the total increase for the whole of New Zealand (3392).
Feb 07, 2018 - Singapore Airlines, one of the world’s leading airline operators, is set to launch a blockchain-based loyalty wallet to enhance and further frequent flyers’ spending of accumulated air miles.
Singapore Airlines (SIA), has announced its plan to launch a loyalty digital wallet based on blockchain technology for its KrisFlyer frequent-flyer program, enabling travelers to easily spend their air miles at retail partners. The application will help with ‘everyday spending’ of passengers’ digital KrisFlyer miles in ‘point-of-sale transactions at participating retail merchants,’ the announcement added.
Feb 2, 2018 - Building consents for all non-residential buildings including offices, education buildings, storage, and cultural buildings were worth $6.5 billion in 2017, up 8 percent from the December 2016 year, Stats NZ said today.
Feb 2, 2018 - For the December 2017 year, both overseas visitors and New Zealand residents had record numbers of arrivals and departures, Stats NZ said today.
In the last calendar year 3.73 million overseas visitors came to New Zealand, 6.7 percent more than in 2016. Just over half of these overseas visitors were holidaymakers, and 30 percent travelled to New Zealand to visit friends and family.
“The record number of overseas visitors in 2017 is about the same as the number of residents living in the North Island as at 30 June 2017,” population statistics senior manager Peter Dolan said. “Annual overseas visitor numbers have been generally rising since mid-2013.”
New Zealand residents took a record 2.9 million trips overseas in 2017, 9.3 percent more than in 2016. New Zealanders holidaying overseas accounted for 44 percent of all resident departures.
Australia was the top source of visitors and the top destination for New Zealand-resident travellers in 2017. Over the year, 40 percent of overseas visitors were from Australia and 45 percent of all trips by New Zealand residents were to Australia. The second-highest source of visitors was China (11 percent).
Continue here to read the full article on the STATSNZ website || February 2, 2018 |||
Feb 2, 2018 - Passengers arriving at or departing from Brisbane Airport will soon be able to spend cryptocurrency in a number of stores and F&B outlets at the airport. Brisbane Airport and a number of retailers have partnered with TravelbyBit to bring decentralised blockchain-enabled payments to the two terminals.
Feb 01, 2018 - Emirates, the world’s best airline according to TripAdvisor 2017, plans to launch a new, five times a week service from Dubai to Santiago International Airport (SCL) in Chile, starting on July 5, 2018.
Jan 26, 2018 - The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that only 60% of seats were filled on the ratepayer subsidised Wellington-Canberra flight route, compared to an average of nearly 80% for all flights in and out of Australia. Taxpayers’ Union Economist, Joe Ascroft, says that “Figures published by the Australian Government in their international airline review for 2016/17 make for sober reading. It is no surprise that Singapore had to move their flight route to Melbourne. Making profit, even after ratepayer subsidies, on a route where 40% of seats are empty on an average flight was never realistic.” “Changing the route to Melbourne is unlikely to be successful either. Jetstar had to discontinue their Wellington-Melbourne route in 2016 because it was unprofitable to compete with Air New Zealand and Qantas. Ratepayers shouldn’t be forced to subsidise an airline, and especially on a route which is already serviced by two other airlines.”
The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency to cancel their deal with Singapore Airlines. We’ve started a petition which you can view here.
|A Taxpayers Union release || January 26, 2018 |||
Jan 24, 2018 - Singapore Airlines has just announced a major change to its Wellington operations unveiling it will 'de-link' the service from Canberra and connect Wellington to the world via Melbourne.
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242