Win for tourism with Government’s $5m funding boost

New information will be gathered on domestic tourism in NZ. Photo / Getty Images

Tourism and Hospitality Minister Matt Doocey says $5 million in new funding for data collection will be used to find out more about domestic travellers.

The domestic market makes up about 70 per cent of the activity in the sector and tourism leaders have complained that not enough information is available about Kiwis seeing their own country.

“We want to better understand the numbers of domestic tourists but also the flow between the regions as well,” Doocey told the Herald.

It was important to know more about the domestic visitor experience, he said.

“When you look at some of the previous international visitor surveys, which show people highly recommend New Zealand [and it] sits well above 90 per cent, we want to understand the visitor experience in the domestic market as well.”

Doocey said he’d spent much of the summer Parliamentary recess travelling the length of the country and talking to regional tourism bodies and operators. Social licence to operate what is the country’s second biggest export earner was important.

“Part of the data we’ll be looking at is around community sentiment, to understand the views of communities about domestic and international tourism near towns and regions.”

The data, which will be sourced by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), is the first in a range of initiatives to be funded from the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy (IVL) allocation of $5.08m.

The new data will primarily be domestic-focused and will provide insight into areas such as visitor movement, the short-term rental accommodation market, visitor experience and community sentiment. The first tranche of data is expected to be available later this year.

The investment in this new data follows recommendations from the Tourism Data Leadership Group.

MBIE’s manager tourism, evidence and insights, Amapola Generosa says the new data will complement existing tourism data such as the Tourism Satellite Account and the International Visitor Survey.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa has been pushing for better data and chief executive Rebecca Ingram said the announcement was welcome news.

“For tourism in New Zealand to develop sustainably we need fundamental information about our customers, what they do, where they go, where they stay and how our communities are feeling about it,” she said.

Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.