Election Manifesto highlights tourism value to regions

Election Manifesto highlights tourism value to regions

Priority actions for the incoming Government to support the tourism industry’s goal of contributing $41 billion a year to the economy by 2025 have been unveiled today by the Tourism Industry Association New Zealand (TIA).

The Tourism 2014 Election Manifesto outlines six priorities for the new Government:

• Support Tourism 2025 goals
Prioritising growth opportunities identified in Tourism 2025 where the support of the incoming Government is needed to make progress.
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• Recognise and promote tourism
Keeping the industry at the centre of political and public attention will be important in building on the gains achieved in the past three years and delivering value to the New Zealand economy. Safeguarding our international reputation is also crucial.
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• Improve infrastructure
While New Zealand’s natural environment provides the setting for a range of visitor experiences, quality infrastructure is needed to support the range of activities that visitors enjoy.
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• Enable sustainable tourism
To be sustainable – environmentally, socially and economically – we must protect and enhance the environment on which tourism businesses depend, win support from local communities, and address regional dispersal and seasonality issues.
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• Make travel easier
Continued efforts to make it easier and safer for people to travel to and around New Zealand is a key to unlocking visitor growth from target markets in Asia and the Pacific Rim.
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• Get the workforce right
Being able to employ people with the right skills and in the right locations is critical to growing the value of the tourism sector and its contribution to the economy.
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The Manifesto also highlights new statistics that show tourism’s contribution to employment in each region of New Zealand, as well as how much visitors spend in each region.

“Tourism already earns $24 billion each year. But it has the potential to contribute even more to our economy,” TIA Chief Executive Chris Roberts says.

“Earlier this year, the industry unveiled an ambitious goal to double total tourism revenue (including domestic tourism) to $41 billion a year by 2025. The industry-led framework Tourism 2025 is seeing businesses, large and small, aligned around a shared set of goals to grow the economy,” he says.

“So the industry is taking charge of its destiny, but we can’t do it alone. The Government’s recognition of the importance of the tourism industry is to be applauded, but to maximise tourism’s growth potential and its essential contribution to New Zealand’s overall economic and social well-being, continued support is critical.”

The new regional tourism employment and spend figures paint a really clear picture of how the tourism economy benefits every region in the country, and will be incredibly useful in helping TIA members show their local Parliamentary candidates and decisionmakers the value of the tourism economy, he says.

A copy of the priorities is being mailed to TIA members as well as election candidates.

To read the full Election Manifesto, go to www.tourism2025.org.nz

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