Getting Kiwis sold on tourism
Government wants to lift industry’s sustainability, and convince the locals that travellers are valuable
The Government has unveiled a new strategy for sustainable tourism, as the industry’s overseas marketing arm prepares to persuade more New Zealanders tourism is good for them.
Right down to delegates’ recyclable paper bags, sustainability has this week been dominating the industry’s main event, Trenz, and yesterday Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage doubled down on the theme.
While a record 308 tourism operators were enthusiastically trying to attract more business from buyers in Rotorua, there is widespread acknowledgement that the squeeze in parts of the country from tourists at certain times has not gone away and there are signs locals’ patience is wearing even thinner.
And the lack of awareness among New Zealanders of tourism’s economic importance — it is the number one export earner — is worrying the industry.
As a result, government agency Tourism NZ — under the new board leadership of Jamie Tuuta — will soon be selling this country to Kiwis as well as marketing where it usually does — overseas.
The ministers said their new strategy sets out “a more deliberate and active” role for government in tourism, to better manage the challenges of growth and share the benefits of tourism more widely.
“Tourism is a vital part of New Zealand’s ongoing success, supporting national and regional economies, creating jobs and allowing us to celebrate who we are. We must ensure that we’re set up to continue enjoying these benefits,
while better managing the challenges that growth can bring,” Davis said.
The New Zealand-Aotearoa Government Tourism Strategy document is an admirably slender 17 pages and lists four immediate priorities for 2019/20. They are:
Co-ordination across the tourism system:
This will see powerful agencies, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and the Department of Conservation, take a leadership approach to coordinate the Government’s tourism efforts across the public sector in a sign of a more hands-on role.
Long-term sustainable funding mechanisms:
On the money score that’s one where this Government took the leap — in the face of industry reservations. It will soon be collecting around $80 million a year from a $35 visitor levy collected from most visitors except Australians and those from the Pacific Islands.
Destination management and planning:
There are many regional tourism organisations and local agencies involved in this, some more switched on than others and with bigger ratepayer bases to fund them. In the short term, the Government will identify priority regions to work with directly and develop guidelines to be shared with other regions. A welcome move.
Better data and insight: While Tourism NZ released deeper profiles of key markets this week, the Government is promising more for an industry that’s been crying out for it. A “Tourism Data Domain Plan” promises to identify future trends that could affect tourism, and coordinate and share data and insights to support the industry. The danger here is doubling up on what’s out there already and what companies such as Auckland Airport plan to do with measuring sustainability.
While very much a “framework”, these four priorities have been welcomed, and are from the same songbook shared by nearly every industry group and business at Trenz. Tourism Industry Aotearoa says the Government and the sector are steering the waka in the same direction.
But in an industry where there are a lot of strategies, working groups and discussion papers will remain fuzzy without the political drive and money to make them happen. That’s why the $80m is so valuable.
This will be shared by tourism infrastructure and conservation, where the industry will be looking for any detail of Sage’s plans.
The industry would want levy spending on areas most frequented by visitors to national parks and conservation areas, still a huge drawcard for more than half the 3.9 million visitors, rather than being channelled into a remote project where nobody goes.
Yesterday, Sage said she wants rising visitor numbers to be part of the solution for our biggest conservation challenges, including climate change, the impact of pest species, and habitat loss and degradation.
She’s making soothing noises about where spending has been in the past. In the under-pressure Aoraki-Mt Cook National Park, since 2010 DoC has invested over $16.5m in visitor facilities within the park, including a new visitor centre, road improvements, tracks and more toilets.
But she talks about the “biodiversity crisis” that means 4000 species are under threat or at risk of extinction.
Expect the levy funds to go this way, but Sage says it just won’t be in the back-blocks: there’ll be some high profile projects so overseas levy payers can see where their money is being spent.
“Tourism can be a champion for the restoration of the natural environment, and show other industries and sectors how it can be done successfully,” she says.
Climate change goes together with tourists — many of them attracted to our conservation estate — so how they can help mitigate this is a challenge. Offset schemes only go so far.
Air travel over the vast distances to this country and getting around here is still inherently polluting, and Air New Zealand alone contributes 3.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.
Alternatively powered planes are years away and electric ground transport is still in its infancy, relative to petrol or diesel-powered travel.
Davis says alarm at freedom camping has ebbed, but it is still a concern among those surveyed by the industry recently and something he is determined to tackle. There will be more announcements on that.
The survey showed 93 per cent of New Zealanders thought tourism was a good idea, but those who thought there were too many overseas visitors had ticked up to 26 per cent during the past six months.
Only 12 per cent knew that tourism was our biggest foreign exchange earner and the industry struggles with a perception problem when it comes to people making a career choice.
This is something that Tourism New Zealand’s next iteration of its 100% Pure campaign will turn to when it is released next month.
But in new chairman Tuuta, the organisation has a forceful leader who has clear ideas about the need to make Kiwis as enthusiastic about tourism as overseas visitors already are.
He’s not giving away much but he says it will be exciting.
“It will not only speak to our International visitors but also speak to New Zealanders.”