Promotional agency under review
Tourism’s growing pains have prompted a review of Tourism New Zealand and could signal a major shakeup in its future role promoting the country.
The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) said the review was needed because it was increasingly apparent that the tourism sector was struggling to accommodate the rate of growth and rapidly changing visitor expectations.
Negative impacts of growth were not being well managed, which was affecting public support for the industry, and there was global uncertainty over the international tourism market.
The last review of TNZ was done in 2010, but since then MBIE said tourism numbers had increased significantly, putting pressure on infrastructure.
The Government’s draft tourism strategy put more focus on regional development, and the internet and social media had dramatically changed the way people organised their travel.
Michael Bird, MBIE’s general manager of entity performance and investment, said all those factors made it the right time to step back, look at TNZ’s role, and ensure it was well positioned for the future.
That would include looking at the changing international environment where uncertainty arising from major events, such as Brexit, could affect discretionary spending holidays.
The review, to be completed by June, will look at whether TNZ should branch out from traditional promotional activities into business and product development, and destination management, which is usually done at a regional level.
It could also take on more marketing functions for other government agencies and move into providing tourism data.
Tourism organisations have been highly critical of the quantity and quality of visitor data, and the accuracy of MBIE’s figures on visitor spending was the subject of a damning review by Statistics NZ last year.
Bird said the review was not a cost-cutting exercise.
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