Camp Ground Review

Media Release

Camp Ground Review

16 September 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 18.7% 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 On behalf of it members the Tourism Industry Association (TIA) has reaffirmed its commitment to work with the Government on how to increase camping facilities for New Zealanders and international visitors in areas where there is limited supply.

The Association is responding to the release of the Review of Camping Opportunities in New Zealand carried out by the Department of Conservation (DOC).

TIA’s priority is to ensure the interests of private campground owners are protected. It would not be appropriate for instance for DOC to set up subsidised campgrounds in competition with private operators as this would be detrimental to operators’ businesses and potentially to regional economies. “We are encouraged by the Government’s statement that it shares this priority,” said TIA Chief Executive, Fiona Luhrs.

TIA said while it is supportive of the Government’s intention to encourage recreation, the Association is concerned that changes to the Campground Regulations as indicated in the Review may compromise standards and the quality of the camping experience. The Association said it would like to see DOC work with tourism organisations such as Qualmark, the tourism quality endorsement agency owned in part by the Government, to maintain and improve standards on public campsites.

The Association said it will pay close attention to the possible development of options to use school grounds, public reserves and sports fields, reiterating that compromising the quality of the camping experience could undermine the objective of encouraging greater outdoor recreation.

TIA and its members in the holiday park sector look forward to further analysing the options identified in the Review, and ongoing collaboration with DOC.

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 $8.1 billion dollars to the economy in the year ended March 2004. That is 18.7% of exports
 Domestic tourism contributes $9.4 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% of gross domestic product and generates nearly $526 million in GST returns from international visitors each year. Tourism is the only export sector whose international clients pay GST.

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