Tourism Spending Increases

Provisional Tourism Satellite Account: 1998-2000

Tourism Spending Increases

The growing importance of tourism to the New Zealand economy is verified in a report released today by Statistics New Zealand. The report, Provisional Tourism Satellite Account 1998-2000, estimates that in the year ended March 2000 tourists spent $13.2 billion in the New Zealand economy, an increase of 14.8 per cent from the year ended March 1997. This total includes spending by overseas visitors and domestic household and business tourists.

Provisional Tourism Satellite Account 1998-2000 was funded by the Office of Tourism and Sport under the auspices of the Tourism Research Council of New Zealand.

The Provisional Tourism Satellite Account 1998-2000 report presents statistics on the impact of tourism on the New Zealand economy for the years ended March 1998-2000, and follows on from Tourism Satellite Account 1997 which was published in May 2001.

Key results from the report show that the $13.2 billion spent by tourists in 2000 generated a direct contribution to Gross Domestic Product of $4.8 billion, or 4.9 percent of New Zealand's total industry contribution to Gross Domestic Product. This figure represents the value added by those businesses directly engaged in providing goods and services purchased by tourists, and is an increase of 14.6 per cent from the year ended March 1997. In comparison, total industry contribution to GDP increased by 9.7 per cent in the same period.

A further $4.7 billion was contributed to GDP in the year ended March 2000 by indirect flow-on effects resulting from the supply of goods and services to tourists. These occur when suppliers of tourism products such as transport services, accommodation services and restaurant meals purchase goods and services from their suppliers (for example, purchases of fuel, electricity, meat and vegetables). Tourists paid $1.0 billion net GST on the purchase of goods and services in the year ended March 2000.

An estimated 94,000 full-time equivalent employees were directly engaged in providing goods and services to tourists in the year ended March 2000. This is an increase of 9.6 per cent over the year ended March 1997.

Unlike 'conventional' industries such as agriculture or manufacturing, the tourism sector is not explicitly identified in official statistics as it cuts across standard industry definitions. The satellite account identifies what proportion of every industry's sales are made to tourists, regroups this information into a 'tourism industry', and allows key tourism economic measures to be calculated. This allows the performance of tourism to be compared with other industries.

The methodology used in Provisional Tourism Satellite Account 1998-2000 follows international guidelines developed by the World Tourism Organisation and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Brian Pink Government Statistician END

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