Council's flight plan overwhelmed

The City Council's Economic Development Unit has been overwhelmed with the success of their "Get out there and sell" week promotion of flight vouchers through their Market Support programme.

74 applications from Dunedin companies were received and the Economic Development Market Support Committee had a challenging time assessing the entries before deciding on 20 winners.

Manager of the EDU, Peter Harris, comments: "The number of entries shows that Dunedin businesses are keen and ready to get out and sell their products and services. This promotion has helped raise the profile of EDU and confirms to businesses that we are here to help them grow. We've had some great entries from businesses doing some very interesting things. We will be contacting all the businesses that entered and seeing what support we can offer them to help them succeed."

The 20 winners have till 30 May 2009 to book and use their flights, which will be followed up by reports on their successes.

Dunedin International Airport has offered free parking for the winners for their flight, and Scenic Circle Hotels have come up with a special deal to help the winners access some sharply priced accommodation. "We greatly appreciated the fantastic offers from Dunedin International Airport and Scenic Circle Hotels, which really shows how Dunedin businesses support each other," says Mr Harris.

DIAL Chief Executive Officer John McCall says the City Council initiative, to provide twenty $500 flight vouchers to help local businesses work with current customers and find new ones, is an excellent idea.

"This is the sort of lateral thinking our business community needs so we wanted to signal our support for it in a tangible way. As one of Dunedin's key business gateways Dunedin International Airport wants to do all it possibly can to encourage local businesses 'to get out there and sell'," he says.

Mr McCall says they added a parking voucher to the Dunedin City Council Economic Development Unit's package to provide that extra bit of value.

Winners

Contact details

Contact Peter Harris on 477 4000.

Last reviewed: 20 Apr 2009 11:35am