New Zealand tourism aims to outdo forecast performance

New Zealand's tourism industry is aiming to outperform the latest Government tourism forecasts to cement its position as one of New Zealand’s biggest export sectors.

Tourism Industry Association New Zealand (TIANZ) Chief Executive Chris Roberts says the five-year forecasts are a prediction of likely visitor numbers and visitor spend in a business as usual approach, stating “the tourism industry has signalled through the Tourism 2025 growth framework that by aligning our efforts we can do much better than BAU.

“Our challenge is to treat these Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment forecasts as a minimum target and then to take action which drives even greater returns for the industry and our individual operators.”

The Tourism 2025 growth framework identifies a range of opportunities to grow tourism’s contribution to the economy. The focus is on growing volume, but growing value faster.

The new forecasts reinforce the Tourism 2025 view that some of the greatest opportunities for New Zealand’s tourism industry lie within the Pacific Rim, most obviously within the rapidly growing Chinese market but potentially also with other Asian visitor markets like India and Indonesia.

Roberts adds “the forecasts predict an impressive 132% lift in spend by visitors from China out to 2020.

“This provides the industry with a sound platform to lift this performance through Tourism 2025 initiatives such as better targeting and attracting high value Chinese visitors.

“There are several event-specific opportunities during the five-year period of the forecasts for the industry to capitalise on.

“The first of these is the Cricket World Cup early next year, especially for those markets which can take advantage of the new single visa that can be used by visitors to Australia and New Zealand during the tournament. The 2015 FIFA under-20 World Cup and the 2017 World Masters Games also offer excellent opportunities.”

TIANZ is also encouraged to see the positive outlook for traditional visitor markets like the USA and Germany as their home economies improve.

TIANZ intends to work with its members and the Government to achieve the Tourism 2025 targets. Its recently released 2014 Tourism Election Manifesto highlights a set of priority actions for the incoming Government to support tourism value growth.

Images show Auckland's skyline and a tour of one of the locations used The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. 

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