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January, 2011 One of the world's most high profile athletes, New York Yankees centre fielder Curtis Granderson is recommending Queenstown adventure tourism to the world after trying it out first hand this month, closely tailed by a Yankees' television crew.Granderson, arguably one of the most high profile athletes to ever visit New Zealand, is helping to showcase Queenstown's adventure tourism industry to millions of people in the United States, particularly New York, during his 3-day visit. Baseball New Zealand scored something of a coup, Granderson's first ever visit to New Zealand, and executive officer Ryan Flynn said they had worked with Tourism Auckland and Destination Queenstown to maxmise the opportunity. New Zealand's fledgling baseball community of about 20,000 players had already produced three professionals in the last 15 years, Flynn said. The 2nd season Yankee, formerly an all-star with the Detroit Tigers, had power and speed, and was one of four major leaguers to hit 20 doubles, 20 triples, 20 home-runs and steal 20 bases in one single season. He held four coaching clinics for up and coming young Kiwi baseballers in Auckland, which would also be attended by Major League scouts and officials, before ``selling our beautiful country' as well, Flynn said. Also on the American sporting celebritys schedule was dinner with Prime Minister John Key, whose son Max (15) is one of the country's top 30 players for his age group. He was also set to lunch with Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe. Tourism New Zealand brought Granderson, who is respected in baseball circles as a humanitarian, philanthropist and educator, to Queenstown from January 27 to 29. Sampling the best of food and wine, skydiving, rafting and riding on a flying fox before exploring the sights on the back of a Harley Davidson motorcycle were all on his itinerary. Granderson's Queenstown adventures were filmed by a television crew from the Yankees for the club's very own television station and for Yankees.com. A Tourism New Zealand spokesman said this coverage, in addition to the sports star's huge online and media following, would translate into very valuable exposure for Queenstown and New Zealand. After his 3-day visit Granderson was already flying the flag for Queenstown via his massive social media following. "Tourism New Zealand has shown us a really great time and if the people out there aren't excited about what I've been posting, there's gotta be something wrong with them," he said in the resort. "We've just finished going up the Skyline gondola, done the Zip Trek flying fox tour and are about to do a jet boat trip. I've been tweeting, been doing Facebook updates and been blogging about the good times I've had down here, and I'm not done yet." An extensive photo diary and extra blogs, would be done once the trip was completed. The baseball star has a huge online and media presence. His blog series is being posted on Yahoo Sports. He has 60,000 Facebook friends and 14,000 Twitter followers. The sports celebrity is known as a humanitarian, philanthropist and educator, and is a home-town hero in New York. Granderson is also spearheading a drive for young Kiwis to become involved in baseball. "There's a lot of talent here, in both the boys and girls. There's a lot of natural athletes." Destination Queenstown chief executive Tony Everitt said the United States had traditionally been a hugely important market , New Zealand's third largest. It had softened a little during the global financial crisis, but had recently been showing positive signs of recovery. Granderson's visit was great timing. (Source: Fairfax)
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