What are they saying about us? | Auckland News | Local News in Auckland

Forget Queenstown and Rotorua: Auckland is where most tourists spend most of their time in New Zealand. But is it the most liked? Sean Gillespie goes ego surfing on our city's behalf, riding the waves of internet chatter in search of the answers.

Auckland is the type of destination visitors love or hate. Or, in the case of many living south of the Bombays, love to hate. But who cares about little sibling syndrome; the question is: what does the rest of the world think of us? And what better place to find out than from the horse's mouth - social media.

Auckland is by far New Zealand's most popular destination, welcoming about 70 per cent of international arrivals. But don't kid yourself into thinking we're simply the land's biggest doormat - guests tend to stay longer than it takes to get over jet-lag or do last-minute shopping.

On average, international visitors spend 12 nights in Auckland: more than a third of their trip to New Zealand. Considering Aotearoa is most famous for its geographic delights, that's pretty impressive. But how do our guests really feel about us after they leave?

As you'd expect, there's cyber-chatter to support pretty much any view you have of Tamaki Makaurau and its folk. And there are plenty of themes you probably don't want to hear about. Many of the most damning comments are pretty easy to shrug off, but a couple will resonate with proud Aucklanders.

A common view is: the city isn't a good introduction to the rest of the country. "There are a few things to do here but overall, you aren't wowed by it and Auckland is a poor introduction to just how amazing New Zealand is," blogs Matt from the United States.

Over on a blog for English as Second Language teachers, people respond to a Canadian asking whether Auckland would be a good place to live.

"Auckland is shit. Hardly anyone there is happy, too busy thinking about making money ... the city is poorly designed, too spread out and the public transportation is the pits," responds Mr Bojangles.

"Auckland was a pain, I had to buy a car really early on because the public transport sucked," agrees Kerrilee.

Sitting around the top of the unpopularity list is Queen St. Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree traveller forum offers the strongest comments.

"Queen St was horrible and soulless," comments Little Vixen from Australia.

"Queen St was pathetic. It may be the main shopping street in the CBD but it looked like every other shopping street with no special shops or atmosphere to recommend it," posts Harry Ramsden before returning a few days later to add: "Every guide book recommends Queen Street. Every guide book is wrong."

But not all comments about Queen St are negative.

"I reckon after spending three weeks in Russia, I could see more attractive women in 10 minutes standing in Queen St downtown Auckland," says Adman, on a forum about love and romance with Russian women.

Monitoring online gossip is hardly a scientific way of measuring our international popularity but, arguably, it's more honest. In New Zealand, tourism boards use a visitor's comment form to garner opinions.

But imagine you're overseas and someone asks you to fill in a questionnaire on what you think of their country. Even if you hate it, you'll probably say it's great ... then let loose when you're safely at home on Facebook or on a travellers' forum.

Having the opportunity to voice your opinion from the comfort of home, hiding behind an electronic veil, has paved the way for a plethora of online vitriol and pent-up aggression.

But that's not to say it isn't fair comment and doesn't necessarily mean people's thoughts aren't reasoned.

Boston travel blogger Nomadic Matt offers a balanced swipe at Auckland. The 20-something vagabond has been travelling for five years and has collated extensive notes and advice for other perpetual drifters.

He condemns Auckland as a "quite boring" business city that lacks the character of Wellington or Queenstown - but adds that doesn't mean it isn't a great city to live in. "It's a beautiful city, there are a lot of parks around, and you can drive to beautiful beaches."

Matt is far from alone in his views. Most of the 11 comments on his post echoed his opinion. "I completely agree Matt. Auckland leaves a lot to be desired as a backpacker. Great place to live, but also a great place to travel through quickly," posts another Matt.

Detractors aside, Auckland also has its cheerleaders on social media. "So I don't know if I have enough space to describe how awesome Auckland is," writes American travel blogger Michael Ripple. "The city reminds me a lot of Cambridge in Boston except minus all the tourism," he says fondly.

Joseph comments on a travel forum for wannabe residents: "If you like cooking, the ingredients are top rate."

And apparently we're not bad people either: "Although it is a city, the attitude is far more laid back and people here really enjoy the culture and revel in the history," blogs Eleni Young from Kent, England. "It really has given me a new look on how we treat our history and culture back home. Something that we can learn from the people here," she says.

Ab Cloud also appreciated Aucklanders: "A big plus for Auckland are the people living there. Everyone I met was very helpful." When looking at a map, she only had to wait "three seconds" before someone stopped and offered assistance.

Ego surfing: To search the internet for references to one's name in order to gratify one's ego.

Of course, ego surfing isn't just about social media; there are a number of ways to find an ego boost. Googling "Auckland + awesome" links to 1.3 million web pages; "Auckland + shit" hits a mere third of that. "Auckland + love" offers 11 million pages while "Auckland + hate" pales in comparison with a paltry one million.

Refining the "Auckland +" searches to blogs only came up with flattering results. "Like" scored half a million while "hate" and "dislike" got a combined 37,000. "Boring" only managed 18,000 while "fun" and "cool" wiped the floor with 124,000 and 95,000 respectively.

Although, these numbers are in no way academic, they can indicate Auckland's popularity. A more substantial ego stroke is Auckland's regular high position in international ratings.

Mercer's recent and reputable Quality of Living survey ranked Auckland fourth equal in the worldwide stakes while its Cost of Living survey gave the city a big tick of approval. Last year, Islands magazine ranked Waiheke a top ten worldwide island to live on and more recently, the central city's Irish pub The Muddy Farmer was named as the Southern Hemisphere's best place to spend St Patrick's Day.

To put the importance of Auckland's online reputation into perspective, consider this: Auckland's 12.5 million visitors in 2008 spent  $4.1 billion. Only a fifth of those guests were from overseas but that's where the bulk of the money came from, supporting more than 50,000 fulltime jobs.

Auckland takes a fair beating in social media but, clearly, the city is far from down and out. The great thing about online blogs and forums is you can also add a comment. And if you feel someone's bagging your home town unfairly, you can step in and defend
its rep.

Cyber chatter: does it really matter?

Since Marco Polo's first big OE, tourists have relied on informal and fresh information from other travellers to know where's hot, where's not and what's in between.

Auckland tourism professor Simon Milne recognises this and says social media has become a new, much more powerful, word of mouth.

"It's a vital way for visitors to communicate with each other," he says, "and it's also a vital way for people to be able to put down their memories and discuss their thoughts after they leave a destination."

Dr Milne, who heads the NZ Tourism Research Institute at Auckland University of Technology, says monitoring internet blogs, opinions and comments is crucial for tourism organisations if they have the resources to do so.

"It gives you excellent insights into the performance of a region and you trace, like a barometer, how that performance evolves over time."

The internet is a goldmine of market research opportunities and connection with visitors - something Auckland would do well to focus on.

"We have a great city with a lot of wonderful attributes that, perhaps, are a little hidden from most visitors. We have to look at ways to increase their interaction with Auckland and Aucklanders," he says.

Tourism Auckland chief Graeme Osborne appreciates cyber chatter's value but is hamstrung by a small budget. "It's definitely the way the world's moving [but] we just don't have the resource to scan the world's chatter sheets."

Tourism Auckland receives about $3 million a year from local councils. Positively Wellington Tourism collects $6 million.

Mr Osborne says monitoring online activity isn't necessarily the best way to gauge opinion.

"Unless the comments are researched and are put in a context and balanced, so that we understand the critical mass of comment, we have to be a bit measured about how we respond."

To monitor visitors' experiences, Tourism Auckland uses an independent feedback survey - forms at the airport - which is updated every three months.

The 25-employee organisation might not have the staff to monitor online opinions or to contact potential visitors, but it does have five people working in the online area.

Tourism Auckland also has a presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr; runs an Auckland i-Phone application and is about to open a website for mobile phones.

Steve Armitage is a "reputation specialist" and was an advisor to former Tourism Minister Damien O'Connor. He says consumer opinion on social media is a growing area and it's important Auckland works with it wisely if it wants to be a major international destination.

Online comments can be damaging: "Particularly if there is a common thread coming through. Some of it can be dismissed as ravings but, if there's a common theme in what you're reading, then surely it's time to think, 'Hey, maybe we need to address this.'."

Mr Armitage says a reputation built over a very long time can be destroyed in an instant.

Examples of this are recent media attention on price gouging for accommodation around the Rugby World Cup and Chinese media reports of crime and safety issues in Auckland.

Queen S**t?

Online gossip condemns our main street as a "pathetic", "horrible" and "soulless" disappointment. But what do locals think?

"Bullshit," Danie Horn says. "I don't think it's pathetic, I think it's colourful."

Belinda Vaa also disagrees: "Queen St is the heart of Auckland Central. Everything happens here."

Not all Aucklanders are positive. Roger Purdy of Epsom says there's something in the criticism: there's a lack of vibrancy and interesting architecture.

Central city resident David Freeman isn't overly fond of it. "The shopping malls ruined it. Go back to the first Westfield and it was the beginning of the end," he says, noting how high-profile shops shifted out when malls started to take over.

Heart of the City boss Alex Swney isn't surprised by the detractors. "We understand those criticisms because for a long time Queen St has been ignored."

He suggests the city council underfunded the area until a few years ago when the business association successfully lobbied for a targeted rate to fund city projects. The resulting series of improvements, which started three years ago with wider pavements, will be finished in 2014.

"It's just started, this resurgence. We're doing catch up at the moment and we acknowledge that," says Mr Swney.

Several side streets will be paved and made into shared spaces for pedestrians and slow moving traffic.

Alongside the $200 million set of projects, the Aotea Centre, the waterfront, Britomart, and the art gallery are also being upgraded.