New Zealand’s tourism industry has unveiled its goal to contribute $41 billion a year to the economy by 2025, up from $24 billion now.
Released on Monday, Tourism 2025 – Growing Value Together/Whakatipu Uara Ngatahi is a framework to unite New Zealand’s large and diverse tourism industry and ignite strong, aspirational economic growth.
It is an industry commitment to growing value by working together, for the long-term benefit of New Zealand tourism and the wider economy.
“Tourism 2025 is the industry aligning for growth. We can see the world has changed. We are excited by the new opportunities, but we understand that as more and more countries enter the race for the global tourism dollar, we will succeed only if we improve the competitiveness of New Zealand tourism,” said Tourism Industry Association New Zealand (TIA) Chief Executive Martin Snedden.
“Our aspiration is for annual tourism revenues to be $41 billion by 2025. To achieve that, we must grow international tourism at a rate of 6% year on year and domestic tourism at a rate of 4% year on year. The focus is value, rather than visitor numbers. We will grow volume, but we will grow value faster.”
Tourism 2025 is not a detailed strategic plan but a shared vision and commitment to growing value by working together for the long-term benefit of New Zealand tourism and the wider economy, Snedden said.
“While there will be a range of collective actions, the stronger emphasis will be on recognising and valuing initiatives which individual or small clusters of operators are taking that are fully aligned with the strategic thrust of the Tourism 2025 framework and which are helping bring the framework to life.”
Development of the framework has been led by TIA with strong support from industry and public sector leaders.
It is built around five themes:
-Grow sustainable air connectivity – around 99% of international visitors arrive by air so we cannot grow without it.
-Targeting for value – as the global landscape changes and our visitor mix evolves, we need to identify and pursue the opportunities that will deliver the greatest economic benefit.
-Visitor experience – our changing visitor mix brings changing visitor expectations. By continuously striving to improve our visitors’ experience, we will see visitors staying longer, travelling more widely and spending more.
-Productivity – by improving tourism productivity, we will improve returns from existing investments and attract new capital investment; and
-Insight – good insight is critical to drive strategic and operational decision-making for tourism businesses.
“This approach gives licence to the whole industry, big and small, urban and remote, to understand and value the link between the direction the industry is heading in at a high level and what they are doing within their own businesses,” Snedden said.