New Zealand out to mine tourist magic from Hobbit films

'The Hobbit' movies use New Zealand's mountainous scenery as a backdrop Tourism chiefs, hoping to recreate the surge in visitors inspired by the original "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, have launched a massive marketing campaign around director Peter Jackson's latest Middle Earth three-partner. An undated hand-out photo, received from Air New Zealand, shows Air New Zealand's latest in-flight safety video, with characters such as hobbits, orcs and elves from the upcoming 'Hobbit' film urging passengers to fasten their seatbelts.
Like the first trilogy, "The Hobbit" film use New Zealand's mountainous scenery as a backdrop, amounting to what some tourism insiders gleefully describe as a nine-hour long advertisement for the country's rugged charms.
Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive Kevin Bowler does not go that far, but says the films offer the country invaluable global exposure that can be converted into increased visitor arrivals.
"We aim to show potential travellers that the fantasy of Middle Earth is in fact the reality of New Zealand," he said.
But behind the hype, official figures show the first of the new film "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" cannot come soon enough for an industry struggling for momentum almost a decade on from the original Middle Earth saga.
New Zealand's international visitor arrivals jumped from 1.5 million to 2.4 million between 2000 and 2006 on the back of "The Lord of the Rings" but have remained flat at about 2.5 million for the past four years.
A recent Tourism Industry Association report expressed concerns New Zealand had "lost its edge" and was no longer regarded as a must-see destination.
"New Zealand is perceived to have fallen off the global radar as a desirable destination to some extent," the report found.
"In part, as a result of increasing competition from other destinations, and in part because of economic conditions in (tourist) generating countries."
The earthquakes that devastated Christchurch in 2011, resulting in 185 deaths, and a local currency pushing record highs have also not helped matters.
Tourism operator David Gatward-Ferguson said that when the first "Rings" film was released in 2001, the industry was surprised by the influx of visitors wanting to travel to places featured in the film.
"We were initially caught out, yes, and geared up over the next year or two to meet demand," he said, recalling a time when the currency was at a 25-year low and international travel was buoyed by a booming global economy.
Gatward-Ferguson's Nomad Expeditions soon revamped its eco-adventure tours along a Middle Earth theme, taking tourists speaking elvish and wearing Tolkien costumes to set locations in the South Island.
With the entire tourism industry abuzz over potential spin-off benefits from Jackson's latest project, there is little chance operators will be wrong-footed when the first Hobbit film premiers on November 28.