Forecasts provide impetus for Tourism Conference

Forecasts provide impetus for Tourism Industry Conference

22 August 2006

The Tourism Industry Association represents 2000 businesses and organisations within the tourism industry.

Members include airlines, airport companies, and regional tourism organisations, rental car, coach and taxi companies, inbound tour operators, accommodation providers, tourism attractions, researchers, training organisations and tourism services providers.

Tourism is New Zealand’s largest export earner – accounting for 18.5% of this country’s export earnings.

The Tourism Industry Association organises the New Zealand Tourism Industry Conference, TRENZ and the New Zealand Tourism Industry Awards.

Go to www.tianz.org.nz New tourism forecasts highlight the need for strong planning to maximise the value of the multi-billion dollar industry, Tourism Industry Association New Zealand (TIA) Chief Executive Fiona Luhrs says.

The latest Ministry of Tourism forecasts predict that international visitor arrivals will increase an average four percent a year to 2012, when it expects 3.1 million visitors will come to New Zealand. In the same period, international visitor expenditure is forecast to grow an average 6.5 percent a year to reach $10.1 billion in 2012.

The mix of visitors will change, with China set to overtake Japan and South Korea within the next four years to become New Zealand’s fourth largest market behind Australia, the UK and the USA.

Ms Luhrs said the forecast release was timely, with more than 350 participants of the tourism industry gathering in Wellington this week for the Tourism Industry Conference 2006 (21-24 August).

“While the industry is still forecast to grow in the next five years, we are no longer seeing the double digit growth of recent years. Along with other challenges facing the industry – such as rising fuel costs, labour shortages and increasing competition from other international destinations – these latest figures will contribute to discussions at the conference about the future of our industry,” Ms Luhrs said.

The conference theme is ‘strengthening the present…developing the future’ and the focus will be on the mid-term update of the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2010 which is being extended out to 2015.

“These issues are all of deep importance to tourism in New Zealand. We need to jointly determine the issues that will impact on our industry and how we will manage them,” she said.

The Tourism Industry Association, which manages the conference, has combined forces with the Inbound Tourism Operators Council (ITOC) for the event.
“We wanted as many operators and sectors of the industry as possible to contribute to the Strategy update. Bringing our two conferences together has been the ideal solution to getting a concerted and cohesive approach to strengthen and determine the future of the tourism industry in New Zealand,” Ms Luhrs said.

Tourism New Zealand is today updating delegates on New Zealand’s international markets, while tomorrow’s conference sessions will be devoted to the Tourism Strategy update.

On Thursday, leading tourism researchers and strategists will present a series of ‘Learning Labs’ with in-depth information on the latest data, forecasts and research available for the tourism industry.

Go to www.nztourismconference.co.nz for more conference details.

The Tourism Industry Conference is managed by TIA in partnership with the Inbound Tour Operators Council (ITOC), with support from Tourism New Zealand and the Ministry of Tourism. Event partners are Air New Zealand, Whale Watch Kaikoura, Peek Display Corporation, AA Tourism, Telecom and Visa International.

Key statistics about tourism:
 Tourism is the world's fastest growing industry
 New Zealand tourism arrivals have doubled in size since 1994 to 2.38 million
 Forecast annual growth is 4% on average for at least the next five years
 Tourism is New Zealand's single largest export sector and contributed $7.4 billion dollars to the economy in the year ended March 2004. That is 18.5% of exports
 Domestic tourism contributes $9.8 billion to the economy each year
 Tourism directly and indirectly employs 10 percent of the work force. That is one in 10 jobs in New Zealand.
 Tourism represents 9.4% of gross domestic product and generates nearly $500 million in GST returns from international visitors each year. Tourism is the only export sector whose international clients pay GST.

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