New forecasts show tourism is on track to continue its position as one of New Zealand’s biggest export sectors, the Tourism Industry Association New Zealand (TIA) says.
The forecasts, released by the government yesterday (Aug 20), show that visitor spend is expected to grow 18% between now and 2019, from NZD$5.5 billion to NZD$6.5 billion a year.
“The forecasts highlight opportunities to grow tourism’s multi-billion dollar contribution to New Zealand’s economy,” said TIA Chief Executive Martin Snedden.
“The challenge for our industry is to treat these figures as a minimum target and to then take cohesive action which drives even greater returns for the industry and our individual operators, he said.
Tourism 2025, the new national tourism plan due to be released at the 2013 TIA Summit on 1 October, is focused on identifying the combination of factors which can drive much better results for the industry than has been occurring in recent years.
TIA is developing this plan in conjunction with a range of tourism industry leaders within both the private and public sectors.
“The new forecasts reinforce the reality that some of the greatest opportunities for New Zealand’s tourism industry lie within the Pacific Rim, most obviously within the rapidly growing Chinese market but potentially with other Asian visitor markets as well,” Snedden said.
“These forecasts also highlight the fundamental structural change facing the tourism industry, with some traditional markets continuing to struggle and newer markets on the rise,” he said.
Preparing the industry to function successfully in the face of these fundamental changes is an important focus of Tourism 2025.
“The changing face of global tourism presents New Zealand with many challenges and a number of potentially excellent growth opportunities. New Zealand has to be better ready to compete hard on the international stage for the tourism dollar,” Snedden said.