Tourism forecasts show long term outlook is positive

Media release

20 August 2013

Tourism forecasts show long term outlook is positive

The New Zealand Tourism Sector Outlook report, released today by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment shows that the long term outlook for the tourism sector is positive. Growth in spending is forecast to come from countries such as Australia, Latin America, Africa, China and emerging markets like India and Indonesia.

Figure 1: Tourism expenditure forecasts for 2013-2019 by country

Click for big version.

Source: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Figure 1 shows a summary of the tourism expenditure forecast for key markets for the 2013-2019 period.

“The forecasts show that visitor numbers and spending are expected to grow between 2013 and 2019, which is great news for the industry and the wider New Zealand economy,” says Institutions and Systems Performance General Manager, Michael Bird.

“The forecasts also show that there will be shifts in the composition of visitors – their age, which countries they come from, why they visit, how long they stay and how much they spend.”

“There is no doubt that the Global Financial Crisis has had an effect on the number of visitors travelling to New Zealand from the United Kingdom and Europe.  The forecasts suggest that traditional markets like the United Kingdom will continue to decline.”

“However the decline in our traditional markets should be more than offset by strong growth from China and Australia.  Visitor arrivals from the United States are also expected to improve.”

The forecasts show that strongly growing emerging markets in Asia, Latin America and Africa will be a lucrative source of visitors for New Zealand.  The growth in the economies of those emerging markets is also expected to help lift visitor arrivals from Australia, which stands to benefit from these countries’ growing demand for resources.

“These forecasts provide a rich body of information for the tourism sector and related industries, and I believe they will greatly assist in planning and decision-making,” says Mr Bird.

“I would encourage tourism operators, and providers in related sectors, to pay particular attention to the forecasted changes in the mix of visitors and to actively align their business planning to capitalise on those shifts.”
The New Zealand Tourism Sector Outlook report is available here.

ENDS

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