Forget overseas jaunts says PM

By KARYN SCHERER

The Government is considering whether taxpayers' money should be used to persuade New Zealanders to holiday at home.

Prime Minister Helen Clark told the tourism industry's annual conference in Wellington yesterday that the time had come to consider the issue.

She said domestic tourism had the double benefit of supporting our economy and saving on foreign exchange.

But the idea was quickly shot down by one of the key speakers - the Paris-based president of the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Jean-Claude Baumgarten, whose job is to lobby Governments over tourism issues, told reporters that New Zealand would be bucking international trends.

While it was important that Governments provided infrastructure such as roads, taxes were better spent attracting foreign tourists, he said.

Nevertheless, Mr Baumgarten praised the new Government's commitment to tourism, which includes the establishment of an advisory body which has seven months to come up with an industry strategy for the next decade.

Helen Clark has suggested the body, which is made up of both Government officials and industry leaders, could provide a model for other key sectors of the economy.

Tourism New Zealand has an annual budget of $55 million, all of which is spent trying to lure foreign visitors to New Zealand's shores.

Industry players have long argued that more promotion of domestic tourism is needed to help even out the cyclical nature of the industry. Until now, however, it has largely been left to regional organisations to organise campaigns.

While the Government has indicated strong support for tourism, Helen Clark also took a swipe yesterday at Tourism New Zealand's controversial "100% Pure" marketing campaign, suggesting it might be too old-fashioned.

While noting that the campaign had "clearly worked for many audiences," she suggested it might need to be broadened to show New Zealand as "the sophisticated, upmarket, first world, truly 21st century nation we are."

"New Zealand as a whole need a rebranding consistent with the reality that we produce world-leading products of high quality - and our tourism marketing has a big part to play in that," she said.

The global campaign, which hit the headlines last year when advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi got dumped from the account, is expected to cost more than $20 million over the next few years.

Although Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton conceded the board was "looking at ways this can be addressed," he also hit back at the criticism, warning that the campaign could be destroyed if it was not kept tightly focused.

The debate comes as the industry is enjoying record visitor numbers, and has overtaken the farming sector as our top source of overseas income.

Figures released yesterday estimate tourists spent $4.5 billion in the year ending June - a 22 per cent increase on that period a year earlier, and nearly $300 million more than Tourism NZ had been aiming for.

On average, tourists now spend $166 a day while in New Zealand, with Japanese tourists spending twice that amount.

While the weak Kiwi dollar has boosted spending, it has also worked against Tourism NZ, effectively reducing its overseas marketing budget by around $3 million over the past year.