Getting Kiwis to visit own habitat
Encouraging Kiwis to view their own country as a desirable destination is one of the challenges the tourism industry faces, as it tries claw back billions lost during the coronavirus pandemic.
Prior to the pandemic taking hold globally, many Kiwis had ‘‘bucket list’’ dreams for overseas locations.
Now that the tourists are not here, tourism leaders are hoping to encourage Kiwis to explore their own backyards.
But will the ‘‘everyday Kiwi’’ come even close to replacing the money collected nationally and regionally that tourists would traditionally spend?
Great South presented a Regional Tourism Restart webinar on Friday and its speakers included Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis and Tourism
New Zealand chief executive Stephen England-Hall.
Davis said he was typical of many Kiwis and his ‘‘bucket list’’ attractions included the Niagara Falls, and perhaps his list did not include New Zealand attractions.
The challenge in growing domestic tourism was changing the mindset of Kiwis to start exploring their backyard.
It would require a change of mindset of how Kiwis viewed their country and their traditional holiday habits, Davis said.
The Government committed $400 million to a tourism rescue package in the Budget, and Tourism New Zealand has launched two campaigns to entice Kiwis.
The first campaign via social media was to promote safe travel to New Zealanders, and late last week, a nationwide campaign around domestic tourism was launched. Destination Fiordland manager Madeleine Peacock also gave Davis and England-Hall an update of Fiordland’s unique position of double hurt coming from severe flooding in early February, followed by the coronavirus pandemic.
The one-in-a-100-years flooding had come at a critical time in the tourism season for revenue, from which many operators were impacted severely, Peacock said.
A lot of Fiordland tourism operates within the Fiordland National Park, and she said operators were keen to have discussions about possible concession fees being reduced.
What would really kickstart the industry and give operators growth to move would be the completion of the Fiordland National Management Plan, she said. The plan was set for review in 2017 and still has not been completed.
It’s the guiding document for park managers, commercial operators and the public when considering the future uses of the park.
Davis gave Peacock an assurance that he would raise the management plan with Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage.
Peacock also outlined that some operators were now ‘‘hibernating’’ and putting tourism assets into sheds and warehouses, and look to operate again in the future.
Great South chief executive Graham Budd told Davis the loss of the direct flight from Auckland to Invercargill and the Airways announcement to not man towers at the Invercargill Airport would have an impact on Southland, and particular the tourism industry. Davis replied that the impact on regions from the Airways decision was something that was being discussed in Cabinet.