Prime Movers sector report: Tourism

Tourism is a $15 billion industry heavily reliant on images of wild or rural New Zealand. KEVIN TAYLOR talks to a couple who got going in tourism when the farming got tough.

John and Sarah Vickers run a typical rural tourism enterprise. They conduct tours of grand old homesteads in the Rangitikei district that were built in a range of architectural styles. Small groups visit four homesteads in each tour and lunch is provided.

Most are private houses and not just show-pieces. But they are rich in local history and rank as some of the grander old farmhouses of New Zealand.

However, it is still a part-time operation, off the beaten track, and a tack-on to their existing sheep-farming operation.

They would like it to grow. But the first issue is attracting the numbers, and the second is how to get the local infrastructure built to support more visitors.

It is a problem shared with other rural tourism enterprises.

Rural tourism, whatever its definition, is an important part of tourism as a whole, which creates $15 billion of economic activity and employs one in 10 New Zealanders.

A 1999 study showed about 3000 of the 16,000 or so tourism enterprises are rural-based, making it a reasonably big chunk of the sector. The country actively promotes its unspoilt, wild beauty.

Julie Warren, co-author with Nick Taylor of the report, Developing Rural Tourism in New Zealand, says little has changed with the numbers involved in rural tourism since the report came out. She defines the sector as anything from farmstays and lodges to garden tours and winery operations.

They tend to be small in scale, part-time, and with limited turnover.

Activity-based tourism, according to Warren, is the second biggest component of rural tourism, with accommodation the biggest.

Activity-based operations include kayaking, rafting, cruises, horse-treks, fishing and hunting, caving, and nature-based products like wildlife tours and bush walks.

Culture and heritage enterprises are also part of the rural tourism scene, and a good example can be found in the Rangitikei district.

The Vickers set up tours of architecturally and historically significant local homesteads in 1992.

A former mayor of Rangitikei and chairman of the local tourism body, he says 1992 was not good for farming and the couple decided to do something different.

So, like hundreds of other farming families, they diversified into tourism.

Using their local contacts and knowledge, they grew their business over 10 years and now run tours in Hawkes Bay and around Wanganui as well. They were finalists in the 1995 national tourism awards.

But it has been hard for the couple, who still farm sheep on 58 hectares near Marton.

The Vickers have come across the same problems as many other part-time farm-based rural operators - how to grow and the lack of local infrastructure to support more visitors.

Ninety per cent of their visitors are domestic - typical of most rural tourism enterprises - and a big challenge is getting international visitor numbers up.

The couple spend an average of four to five days a month on the tour business, but could cope with triple the current numbers.

However, tour operators need enterprises with a certain scale to become interested.

John Vickers sees growth in free and independent travellers (FITs in tourist-industry speak), as some tourists on their second and third visits opt to see the country independently.

Christchurch tourism consultant Ray Sleeman says another hindrance to rural tourism development is differences between local councils. Start-up enterprises can encounter greatly varying difficulties from district to district.

Differences are also encountered between Transit NZ regions, particularly in signage, a major concern to rural tourism enterprises.

"They shouldn't vary - but they do," Sleeman says.

Another challenge for rural tourism enterprises is matching tourists with the business.

"It may be difficult for you to find them and them to find you. That is why a lot of them are not fulltime - because they can't generate that sort of level of activity to say 'I'm going to give up the day job'."

But he does not see anything wrong with that - if it enhances the visitor's experience.

At Lake Coleridge in the Canterbury high country, a small group of tourism operators and farmers have pooled their resources to promote tourism. They offer accommodation, four-wheel-drive treks, walks, and garden tours. Sleeman has been working with the group and says clustering gives them strength in dealing with, for example, the local council.

"They are now getting signage about how to get to the place, whereas individually they were totally unsuccessful with that. Now as a group, they have got some clout."

Sleeman helped write a Tourism Industry Association publication, the Community Tourism Planning Guide. Some of it is based on the Lake Coleridge experience.

Sleeman says the environmental sustainability of tourism is not as big a problem in most areas as some think.

"I would say 99 per cent of them would say give me more visitors."

But signs of pressure are starting to show in some places - and outside the traditional tourist centres.

Sleeman is involved in a development plan for the Punakaiki area for the Buller District Council. Tourism is a major factor in the Punakaiki area because of the famous Pancake Rocks.

"But numbers on the West Coast have grown dramatically over the last couple of years - especially in international visitors - and the projections are that they could nearly double over the next 10 years."

Sleeman says the questions being confronted include how the community will manage the growth so it does not spoil the area.

"There are places now we ought to be concerned about," he says. "The key thing is recognising it in advance so that you can then plan to minimise those negative impacts." Sleeman predicts the smaller and out-of-the-way places - the Lake Coleridges of New Zealand - will see increasing numbers of visitors in coming years.

"Can you come to New Zealand as a visitor and not have a rural tourism experience?" he asks.

Facts:

Value to NZ: $15 billion

Number of enterprises: 16,000

Number of rural enterprises: 3000

Further reading:
nzherald.co.nz/primemovers