Young New Zealanders encourage all to protect New Zealand

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Young New Zealanders are the stars of a new campaign that encourages all to protect New Zealand for future generations. The new ‘Tiaki’ summer campaign follows the successful launch of Tiaki – Care for New Zealand in November 2018.

New Zealand has unique species and landscapes that are found nowhere else on earth. In the campaign, ‘Kiwi kids’ ask New Zealanders and visitors to stand behind the principles of Tiaki and act as proud guardians while they travel around our beautiful country.

By promoting responsible visitor behaviour, Tiaki doesn’t just grow protection and care for Aotearoa, it also fosters and preserves the welcoming, safe and spectacular experiences and manaakitanga or hospitality which New Zealand is famous for.

While most of our visitors care about the environment, we all have different understandings of what it means to look after a place.

Through the voice of young New Zealanders, the new campaign helps visitors understand how they can travel responsibly when in New Zealand, bringing to life the five elements that make up the Tiaki Promise: Protect Nature, Keep NZ Clean, Drive Carefully, Be Prepared and Show Respect.

“I promise that one day when I’m all grown up, I’ll introduce your kids to some of our amazing wildlife. So please promise to care for their future too… By keeping your distance and not feeding them. Even if they like the look of that sandwich that you made this morning.”

“I promise that one day when I’m all grown up, I’ll show your kids somewhere really special. So please promise to care for our future too…By taking away your rubbish and helping keep our home just as special as you found it.”

Since launching a year ago, Tiaki has had a fantastic start with worldwide coverage, millions of views and hundreds of New Zealand operators picking it up and sharing it with our visitors.

Some operators leading the way in New Zealand include:

The Coromandel is showing their commitment to the Tiaki promise through Pick it up Now, a grassroots culture change initiative that encourages everyone to pick up rubbish wherever they are anywhere in The Coromandel.

Kaikoura is a community on a Tiaki mission, in 2002 they became the first local authority in in the world to achieve Green Globe accreditation, affirming the community’s commitment to the environment. In 2010, they were awarded EarthCheck Gold. EarthCheck / EC3 Global is the world’s leading environmental benchmarking and certification programme for the travel and tourism industry. Kaikoura have even named one of their semi-resident sperm whales Tiaki. Tiaki can often be seen feeding close to shore, much to the delight of visitors to the region.

The Sherwood in Queenstown, named one of the ten best sustainable hotel choices in the world, encourage all visitors to learn more about the Tiaki Promise by including it in their booking confirmations, encouraging guests to contribute through actions while staying with them.

Tourism Holdings, or THL Group, is undertaking substantial efforts to support Tiaki and bring about positive change to the environment, embarking on a substantial and world-leading sustainability programme (with climate change a core focus). As part of this, they are aiming to reduce their absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2025, for both the organization and the customer journey.

Owners Hinewai and Cameron of Napier Maori Tours are proud supporters of Tiaki and involved in many community cultural and environmental projects. Visitors on their tours can share their passion by planting a native tree seedling, then watching it grow via geo-coordinates online. Hinewai speaks of an ancient Maori proverb that aligns closely with Tiaki – “As man disappears from sight the land remains” “as Kaitiaki we are collectively tasked that we must leave this world in a better state than when we came into it”.

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