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A Tauranga firm will use a high-profile billboard at Tauranga Airport to promote te reo Māori all year around, not just this week.
Bridgette Tapsell, CEO of boutique PR agency, Whare PR, says travellers are enjoying seeing te reo Māori displayed on the electronic billboard situated above the bag collection carousel at Tauranga Airport.
This week to celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo Māori the firm's billboard displayed a simple phrase ‘Kia pai tō wiki’, which included the translation ‘Have a good week’.
“We’ve had feedback from travellers that they love seeing this billboard. Simple, everyday phrases is the great way to start, to weave them into your daily kōrero. If we just saw two phrases a day, while out and about, before long it would be normal for everyone and is a great building block towards being conversational or fluent."
Tapsell says Te Wiki o te Reo Māori is an incredible concept and it is amazing to see New Zealanders embracing the language in record numbers.
“This week it’s been exciting to see so many people having the confidence to give it a go in the form of basic conversational phrases. The efforts by media, government and the business community to acknowledge and embrace our language in their marketing has been really heartening."
Tapsell says they will change out the billboard phrase each month for a new te reo Māori message.
“We are just small but our billboard is big and high profile. Everyone can do their bit.”
