Prince Harry was on on Stewart Island for just under 24 hours, but his visit last month created publicity money can't buy, Southland's tourism boss says.
Photographs, videos and stories showing the cheerful prince experiencing the scenery and wildlife, talking to locals, and participating in the island's weekly pub quiz were seen or read by a global audience which likely numbered millions, Venture Southland tourism team leader Warrick Low said yesterday.
Venture Southland looked after tourism and community and economic development for three Southland councils and spent less than $500,000 a year on promoting tourism in Southland and Fiordland, he said.
''We were incredibly fortunate the decision was made for him to come down here. You can't buy that sort of exposure.
''I'd like a royal visit every year. I would particularly like to welcome [Prince] George and [Princess] Charlotte.''
A report compiled by Mr Low's staff for a Venture Southland meeting next week said there were 708 twitter and Instagram posts about Prince Harry's visit on hugely popular sites such as BBC News, which has 4.3 million followers, and Kensington Palace, which has 529,000 followers.
''Those are incredibly big numbers,'' Mr Low said.
The visit was also covered by television channels and online news sites all over the world.
Prince Harry was big in the print media too, with articles in newspapers as diverse as the Seattle Times and Huffington Post (United States) and the Gulf News (United Arab Emarites).
Among the photographs which attracted the most reaction internationally was sunrise over Halfmoon Bay, Stewart Island, taken by Prince Harry himself and released first on the Instagram social media site.
The visit was a ''once-in-a-lifetime opportunity'' for positive national and international exposure, the report said.
Mr Low said the aim now was to build on the momentum generated by the visit, something which was already starting to happen.
He had just had a telephone call from staff at Tourism New Zealand's United Kingdom office wanting to feature Southland and Stewart Island in the UK print and online travel magazine Wanderlust, which has more than 100,000 subscribers in 112 countries.
''We've been lobbying for that for a while, but Prince Harry's visit has certainly complemented our efforts.''
