Top flight tourism operators announced

Top flight tourism operators announced

Thirty three top tourism businesses have been announced as Finalists for the prestigious Tourism Industry Awards 2007.

Strong competition and an additional stage of judging before being announced as a Finalist means the resulting Finalists’ list represents some of the truly outstanding tourism businesses in New Zealand (Finalists list attached by region and by sub category).

“The purpose of the Awards is to reward and recognise business excellence in the New Zealand tourism industry. They represent the highest possible accolade for New Zealand tourism operators and are an opportunity to encourage continuous improvement in an ever changing business environment,” says Fiona Luhrs, Chief Executive, Tourism Industry Association (TIA).

Tourism operators from all over New Zealand feature among the Finalists, with a number of 2006 winners entering again this year, as well as many new entrants. The Finalists were announced at TRENZ 2007 (Tourism Rendezvous New Zealand), the tourism industry’s biggest annual business event being held in the Energy Events Centre, Rotorua, from 21-24 May.

Many of the businesses who are finalists in the Awards are also represented at TRENZ 2007.

“We’ve added two new special stand-alone Awards this year, the Department of Conservation-sponsored Conservation in Action Award, and the Westpac Small Tourism Business Operator Award. These provide an opportunity for smaller operators to take the first step into the Awards process, and have proved very popular,” says Ms Luhrs.

The Tourism Industry Awards are based on the internationally recognised
Baldrige Business Excellence criteria and are judged by a team of three judges who are leading tourism industry experts.

“We are providing written feedback at each stage of the Awards to ensure that those entrants who don’t make it through know how they can improve. While the Awards recognise those businesses who are doing well, a key objective is to assist businesses to understand which aspects of their business could benefit from further development,” Ms Luhrs says.

The Awards winners will be announced at a celebratory evening during the Tourism Industry Conference in August in Auckland.

The Tourism Industry Awards are managed by TIA, with support from Tourism New Zealand, Air New Zealand, KEA Campers, Montana New Zealand, Telecom, Visa, Westpac, Department of Conservation, Green Globe, Budget Car & Truck Rental, Horwath and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).

Images of the finalists are available – contact TIA (numbers below).

Key statistics about tourism:

 Tourism is the world's fastest growing industry
 New Zealand tourism arrivals have doubled in size since 1994 to 2.4 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 2005. 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.

ends

© Scoop Media