Cook Islands Receives Highest Ratings on Australia's 'Travel Guides' Channel 9 show
The Cook Islands starred in a landmark episode of the Australian Channel 9 travel show 'Travel Guides,' which aired over the weekend. The episode garnered widespread attention across Australia, leading to a 3100% increase in visits to the Cook Islands tourism website, www.cookislands.travel.
'Travel Guides' a Channel 9 Australian television series presents a diverse group of travelers exploring various destinations and sharing their experiences, culminating in a final score out of five stars. For the first time in the show's seven-season history, all Travel Guides awarded their Cook Islands holiday a perfect five out of five stars.
“It has been one year since we embarked on direct flights from Sydney, Australia. Now at 4 flights per week it is expected that Australia will deliver 32,000 visitors this 2023/24 financial year - the most Australians ever in one year” said Cook Islands Tourism CEO Karla Eggelton. Now at 20% of our visitor arrivals, Eggelton says investment in Australia business remains key. “We need to drive awareness in this market and build momentum that translates into bookings. Travel Guides is a key activity to build a sustained nationwide profile as an attractive tropical holiday destination for Australians”.
Australia's favourite travel show has a commercial advertising value of approximately AUD $11.880 million per episode for Australia broadcasts. This is also amplified through cross promotion on other top programmes including; The Today Show and A Current Affair.
According to MediaWeek Australia TV Ratings, the Cook Islands episode attracted over 2 million viewers in its initial broadcast and continued to engage audiences on catch-up TV, reaching a total national audience of 2,182,000. The episode not only topped the ratings charts but also out performed major news channels Seven and Nine News and scored prime time wins in all demographics, particularly among the 25-54 age group and young adults aged 16-39.
This weekend's activity blitzed social channels and website activity on Cook Islands owned platforms seeing a spike in traffic to the website cookislands.travel which saw an increase of 174% of daily users to the website. Cook Islands Facebook page which currently has 992k Followers experienced a 218% increase in reach and a 183% rise in engagements, while Cook Islands Instagram account with a total of 115k Followers saw a 153% increase in reach to new accounts and a 57% increase in engagement.
“The focus now is to leverage this current hype and interest” says Director of Global Sales and Marketing Noeline Mateariki. Working with the Cook Islands Tourism Australian office and team, planned advertising campaigns and promotional activities are being rolled out across Australia, utilizing press, radio, social media, and outdoor advertising channels. These efforts aim to showcase the unique beauty and experiences of the Cook Islands, highlighting why it should be at the top of their bucket list. To support, Jetstar is currently on sale with a AUD $229 one-way fare, available until midnight on July 6, 2024 (AEST). This offer has been shared with the Australian trade and consumer reaching over 80,000+ subscribers.
While filming on Rarotonga and Aitutaki took place in November 2023 the planning took several people several months to coordinate. “On top of having 13 cast/travel guides, the film crew consisted of 14 members including a Series Producer, Story Producers, Director of Photography, Camera Operators, Camera Assistant, Sound Team, Production Manager and a Cast Coordinator. Rachel Mackey, Australasian Marketing Manager who led the planning flew in to assist, supplemented by local head office team members, including myself and Digital Marketing Coordinator Terangi Taio” says Daniel Fisher, General Manager Marketing HO. “It really was a full on 10 days of filming. When factoring in logistics and weather a total team effort was required to make a production of this size work. We extend our meitaki ma’ata to our accommodators, tour operators, and everyone involved who showed their Kia Orana spirit, leaving the cast and crew with such memorable experiences."
The perfect score on 'Travel Guides' has also received support from Cook Islands diaspora residing in Australia - The online social commentary has been positive. “The commentary has been extremely heartwarming. It is so wonderful to see feedback from our iti tangata ki Australia, and we are now working on a date in the future where we can show this whole 50 minute episode on local television for our very own Cook Islands residents to enjoy too” Fisher adds.
For Media Enquiries
Contact: Noeline Mateariki, Director of Sales & Marketing
Email: [email protected]
