NZ tourism industry increases focus on sustainable growth

Releasing it to an audience of international and New Zealand media at TRENZ, New Zealand’s largest annual tourism trade event, Tourism Industry Aotearoa Chief Executive Chris Roberts said Tourism 2025 & Beyond addresses current issues but also looks beyond 2025 to focus on building an industry that continues to make a positive contribution to Aotearoa and New Zealanders in the long term.

“This Sustainable Growth Framework keeps our focus as an industry firmly on growing our value to individuals, communities, the environment, the economy and our visitors,” Roberts says.

“The key change is that sustainability is now at the centre of Tourism 2025, providing a clear pathway towards a sustainable tourism industry for New Zealand. We have added Visitor, Community and Environmental goals and pushed our Economic ambition out to $50 billion a year in annual tourism revenue by 2025.”

“We have already started on this journey with the release 18 months ago of the New Zealand Tourism Sustainability Commitment, which more than 1000 tourism businesses have now signed up to. Then in November 2018, TIA and six other New Zealand organisations launched Tiaki – Care for New Zealand, an initiative that actively encourages international and domestic travellers to act as guardians of Aotearoa.” Tourism 2025 & Beyond now sets these initiatives within the industry’s overall strategic framework, he says.

“We have identified 10 priority action areas, from a long list of 68 actions for the tourism industry, central and local government to work on over the next three years to keep us on track to reach our Tourism 2025 & Beyond goals.”

“We will succeed and maximise the huge benefits of tourism, while avoiding adverse impacts, by working together and having alignment of purpose. I fully anticipate this alignment to be reflected in the Government’s soon to be released Tourism Strategy.”

TRENZ brings together about 300 New Zealand tourism operators (sellers) with targeted international travel and tourism buyers and media from New Zealand’s key established and emerging tourism markets. The event directly helps to grow New Zealand’s $39.1 billion tourism industry. Hosted in Rotorua, TRENZ 2019 was organised at Energy Events Centre, Rotorua,
13-16 May.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA) manages TRENZ on behalf of the Tourism Industry New Zealand Trust. TRENZ is supported by Tourism New Zealand, Air New Zealand, Destination Rotorua, Auckland Airport, Accor Hotels, Millennium Hotels and Resorts, QT/Rydges New Zealand, Sudima Hotels and Resorts, Christchurch International Airport, The Great Journeys of New Zealand, and Tranzit Group.

KEY FACTS

• Tourism in New Zealand is a $107 million per day industry. Tourism delivers around $44 million in foreign exchange to the New Zealand economy each day of the year. Domestic tourism contributes another $63 million in economic activity every day.

• Tourism is New Zealand’s biggest export earner, contributing $16.2 billion or 20.6% of New Zealand’s foreign exchange earnings (year ended March 2018).

• 5% of the total number of people employed in New Zealand work directly or indirectly in tourism. That means 365,316 people are working in the visitor economy.

• The Tourism 2025 growth framework has a goal of growing total tourism revenue to $41 billion a year by 2025.