Tourism hoping for repeat dose

Air New Zealand deputy chief executive Norm Thompson. Photo / Supplied

Holding ground rather than making gains is the target of the tourism industry for this year's Budget.

Air New Zealand deputy chief executive Norm Thompson said the hope and expectation for the Budget was that the commitment shown to tourism by the Government would continue.

"We've seen very good support from government in the area of tourism whether it be marketing dollars, whether it be making it easier for visitors to come to the country," Thompson said. "If we can have that maintained, fantastic."

Prime Minister John Key, who holds the tourism portfolio, last year announced extra funding of $30 million for tourism marketing, taking the total investment to just under $100 million for the year. Key said at the time the extra funding was for one year and he wanted to make sure the boost delivered improved economic outcomes.

Thompson said the $30 million had been spent well by Tourism New Zealand.

"If we hadn't spent that, particularly given all the challenges globally but particularly New Zealand has had, we probably would be significantly worse off," he said.

"My wish is that a good part of that $30 million becomes baseline funding rather than just something that's going to be topped up."

Brian Henderson, chief executive of Auckland-based Tourmasters South Pacific, said New Zealand faced a lot of competition from other destinations.

"So plenty of government support to the industry [would] be always welcome," Henderson said.

"It's probably a very long shot in this Budget but I guess we've just got to hope that there's no cuts to it rather than expect any more."

There were a lot of small and medium sized businesses in the tourism sector.

"Removing of red tape [and] bureaucracy is always good."

Henderson, who is also president of the Inbound Tour Operators Council, said there was a continuing battle for recognising tourism services as an export industry.

"The Government doesn't recognise the services we export as zero rate for GST like all other exporters."

Tourism Industry Association chief executive Tim Cossar had moderate expectations for the Budget.

"Ensuring that [Tourism New Zealand's] got the resources to do its job," Cossar said.

"The recovery work in Christchurch has no doubt got to be a real focus and that the Government's appropriating the right resource to help industry generally and tourism specifically get back on its feet there," he said.