KEY POINTS:
Investors who take a punt on gambling, racing or lottery businesses may be in luck when it comes to tourism returns.
A study on the yields from different sectors in the tourism industry has revealed that between 1999 and 2003, racing, gambling, lotteries and other recreational activities such as bungy jumping and guided walks had the highest average return at 15.9 per cent.
This was almost three times the average New Zealand tourism business return on investment of 5.7 per cent, and shows that some tourism operators would have been better off putting their money in the bank.
Other strong performers were retail on 14.3 per cent and travel agencies on 14 per cent.
The return on investment for non-charter local airlines was the worst performer on - 10.1 per cent, reflecting the poor financial performance of national carrier Air New Zealand at the time of the study.
This was followed by those in the museum category at - 0.5 per cent, and zoos, parks and gardens at 1.3 per cent.
Tourism Industry Association chief executive Fiona Luhrs said the findings would be used to develop programmes and resources to help businesses improve their returns, attract investment, cope with market volatility and generate better profits.
Individual businesses will also be able to work out their return on investment and compare it with others in the same sector.
