Commerce Select Committee reports on

Tourism New Zealand review

14 May 2002

Committee chairperson David Cunliffe said “The Commerce Committee has presented its report to the House on the 2000/01 financial review of the performance and current operations of Tourism New Zealand Limited.’

In summary the committee reported on the following matters:

- Tourism New Zealand received good financial and service performance management ratings for 2000/01.

- The “100% Pure New Zealand’ global television campaign has obtained substantial coverage. Its commercial has been screened over 110,000 times through television, cinema and cable television, and over 800 print advertisements have been run internationally and appeared at over 400 poster sites.

- Tourism New Zealand plays a key role attracting visitors to New Zealand. Visitor numbers increased for the year ended 30 June 2001, but suffered a 4 percent downturn in the months immediately after 11 September 2001.

- Numbers of United States’ travellers entering New Zealand in January 2002 were up 38 percent, or 7,000 from January 2001, and British, Korean, and Canadian tourists were also up by 3,000, 2,000 and 1,500 respectively.

- Tourism New Zealand endorses all elements of the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2010, and believes that the most critical aspects for the future growth of tourism in New Zealand are to maximise tourism’s earnings potential or yield while ensuring long-term cultural, social, environmental and economic sustainability.

- We commend the development of a comprehensive strategy to maximise sustainable earnings to New Zealand from the tourism industry.

- We note the elevation of the Office of Tourism and Sport to a full Ministry of Tourism and note the need for communication between the various public and private agencies associated with tourism to ensure effective co-ordination.

- We encourage Tourism New Zealand to do more to promote the value of the Qualmark brand so that there is greater take-up of such accreditation.

- Failure of Ansett has had a serious impact on flight capacity and a lack of seat capacity in some areas may be constraining tourism, and the impact of any failure of Air New Zealand would be a very substantial reduction of air capacity on all major inbound routes.

- Tourism New Zealand has undertaken a number of initiatives specifically focussed on developing Maori tourism and its capability.

- We note Tourism New Zealand’s strong performance across a range of dimensions. However, we would like to see Tourism New Zealand provide information in its published accounts that breaks down in greater detail substantial areas of expenditure. We would also like information provided on the contribution of such expenditure to the outcomes Tourism New Zealand aims to achieve.

A copy of the report will be replaced on the Office of the Clerk website. www.parliament.govt.nz.

Ends

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