Who has the most sunshine? The battle for the most attractive destination

Abstract

Climate and weather is important for tourism and leisure as it impacts on destination attractiveness and subsequent visitation. Through an archive analysis of media articles and a content analysis of RTO websites this paper explores potential deficiencies in the currently available climate and weather information for tourists in New Zealand. While media reports focused on concern by many RTOs over the poor regional images generated by inaccurate and poorly presented climate and weather data, the RTO websites were found to contain limited climate and weather information. There is considerable potential for RTOs to improve in this respect.