Between the lines: About time tourism got a helping hand

Everybody wants more money from the Government but the tourism industry seems to have a stronger case than most.

Despite the fact that it is the biggest employer with one in 12 people working in it, contributes around $9 billion to GDP, delivers an official $478 million to the Government in terms of GST receipts (in fact a lot more but up-to-date figures are not available), and boasts 16,500 businesses of small to medium size, the industry does not get a lot of help.

The industry's subvention from the Government is $55 million, which may sound a lot but isn't when seen as a percentage of the industry's total earnings.

Indeed, $55 million is just 11 per cent of the GST take and 0.61 per cent of total revenue.

Thus the Government is spending $1 to tease out a further $164, which is a ripper investment by any standards. But tourism is an area where the Government could profitably commit more resources - namely, money and strategy - because it's an industry that can deliver so many of the Coalition's goals.

Closing the gaps? The capacity of tourism to bring prosperity to the regions, and especially to those Maori communities that can create original, authentic and world-class products, is not fully understood. Most international visitors to Northland, for example, say the Maori experience is crucial to their enjoyment of the region.

Further, the boom in FITs - free and independent travellers - opens up opportunities for attractions, accommodation and other crowd-pullers off the beaten track in New Zealand's heartland. Gary McCormick may joke, as he does, that in Gisborne the evening's entertainment is to watch the traffic lights change, but peace and quiet and space are what you want if you come from a country half the size of ours with 15 times the population.

Employment? The industry can do better. One in eight of the Australian workforce is engaged in tourism, either part-time or fulltime, compared with one in 12 here. The Lucky Country has seasonal advantages over New Zealand but there's no obvious reason why we can't get down to one in 10.

Foreign exchange? Given our grossly unbalanced current account, the importance to the economy of deutschmarks, greenbacks and sterling can hardly be overstated. Excluding airfares, international visitors spent $3.6 billion in 1998-99 and we need more of it.

The timing is also right for a heftier contribution from the Government. All things being equal, Australians who represent our biggest market get a 40 per cent saving when they buy New Zealand travel packages at home. That's from their stronger currency and from not having to pay their GST.

Although the Business Roundtable may complain, there's also a strong argument for picking tourism winners through soft loans, straight-out grants and other financial assistance, and particularly so in the regions. Just because successive Governments' record in picking winners in tourism or indeed other industries has not been good does not mean they have not learned enough to get it right next time.

After all, this is not like arbitrarily foisting a factory on to a community. It's about giving a leg up to profit-making assets that are sympathetic to a particular area where visitors increasingly show a desire to go.

So much of the tax dollar disappears into unproductive areas with usually unmeasured results. Tourism is one area where the dividends are visible and guaranteed.