The Tourism Industry

A key characteristic of New Zealand's tourism industry is its importance to our economy. Tourism has a substantial role in job-creation and export earnings. It is a demand-driven, service-oriented industry experiencing rapid growth and innovation. The industry now faces the challenge of balancing economic, social and environmental dimensions to achieve sustainable growth.

Economic driver

Tourism plays a key role in the growth of our economy through employment, foreign exchange earnings, investment and regional development. Tourism directly and indirectly contributes almost 10% of New Zealand's GDP.

Tourism is one of New Zealand's largest export industries, with international visitor expenditure in 2002 of $6.1 billion. The most recently available data for Domestic tourism is for the 2001 calendar year, which reports Domestic tourism generated $6.9 billion. See more information on visitor expenditure in the International Visitor Survey and Domestic Travel Study.

Tourism is a vehicle for regional and community development. Many tourists look for unique, unspoilt or 'off the beaten track' locations, so are drawn to small towns and provincial regions that often most need economic development. Tourist interest in the Maori culture also fosters development of Maori communities and businesses.

Substantial role in job creation

The New Zealand tourism industry is made up of 10 major public-listed companies and between 13,500 and 18,000 small to medium enterprises.

Tourism supports nearly one job in ten in New Zealand, with around 90,000 full-time equivalent jobs provided directly through tourism and an estimated 60,000 indirectly. See the Tourism Satellite Account for more information about tourism's contribution to the economy.

Defined by customer demand

Tourism is defined by customer demand. When a tourist takes a taxi, for example, that taxi service becomes part of the tourism industry. In this respect, tourism cuts across a broad range of industries, including:

• transport,
• accommodation,
• retail,
• catering and
• financial services.

Many other sectors benefit through provision of goods and services that support tourism businesses, for example:

• construction,
• printing and publishing,
• manufacturing and
• insurance.

As a result, tourism policy issues involve a broad spectrum of areas and interests. Read more about the different policy issues in the Policy section.

Long-haul niche destination

Whilst international tourist arrivals have been growing rapidly over the last two decades, New Zealand remains a niche destination. Our geographic location makes us a long-haul destination - it takes over 8 hours to get here from most countries.

We have a different appeal than high volume tourist destinations like France, Spain, USA and the UK. Research indicates that New Zealand appeals to people seeking adventure, connection with nature, relaxation and revitalisation. Read more about New Zealand's appeal.

Draws on 'Public Goods'

Tourism often draws on public facilities and goods such as oceans & rivers, beaches, parks and reserves. By drawing on these resources, tourism impacts on host communities. Careful planning and resource management is required to preserve the quality of these public goods for both tourists and host communities. Read about resource management and sustainable development in the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2010.

Sold overseas and consumed onshore

International tourism is a unique type of export - products & services are sold to customers overseas but consumed in New Zealand. This presents the challenge of ensuring that the total tourism experience is consistent with visitor expectations when they purchase their trips to NZ. Read more about consumer needs and motivations and perceptions of New Zealand.

Intangible and perishable experiences

Tourism largely involves intangible experiences that customers cannot keep, except in photos, videos and memories. Tourism products and services tend to be perishable in nature - for example - excess hotel rooms, airline seats or bungy jumps on one day cannot be accumulated for use at a later date.

Support networks

There are many tourism associations to support different aspects of the tourism sector.

The lead industry body is the Tourism Industry Association New Zealand - a membership based organisation representing the interests of over 3,500 businesses from throughout the tourism industry. Their purpose is to provide leadership, guidance and appropriate services for the benefit of its members in order to contribute to a viable and sustainable tourism industry.

Sector-specific organisations include the Inbound Tour Operators Council (ITOC) and the Holiday Accommodation Parks Association of New Zealand (HAPNZ).

For a full list of tourism associations, see Tourism New Zealand's publication "Getting Started in Tourism".