New minister has chance to give tourism a much-needed reboot - Editorial

Sail GP attracted tens of thousands of spectators to Auckland's waterfront and boosted economic activity.

Editorial

EDITORIAL

The tourism portfolio has proven difficult for a succession of ministers.

What was flying around the middle of the last decade as a major earner and a mostly feel-good sector for New Zealand was grounded by the pandemic and now continues to only just splutter back to life.

There’s been a rapid turnover of ministers in the past five years, overseeing what was at one stage New Zealand’s biggest foreign exchange earner.

In the weekend reshuffle, Louise Upston picked up Tourism and Hospitality, and the Government acknowledges the sector is a critical industry for promoting growth and employment in regional New Zealand.

She replaces Matt Doocey, who won support for devoting funding to improve data.

But he was best known for driving through the trebling of the International Visitor Levy, an increase widely unpopular within the industry.

There’s been head scratching about just how strongly committed the coalition has been to the visitor sector.

That puzzlement is further fueled by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon as a former head of what is the country’s biggest tourism business - Air New Zealand.

Fresh data shows the number of international visitors is running at just 86% of the total before Covid-19 started hitting this time in 2019.

That deficit in numbers is in addition to the loss of annual growth during the last five years.

The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment was in 2018 expecting tourism growth at 4.6% a year and in the five years to 2024.

ASB economists say there appears to be only a limited impact from the International Visitor Levy; numbers rose slightly in seasonal terms in November.

Spending is also on a par with what it was five years ago but that’s been helped by high price rises within that time.

And while annual arrivals ticked up in most major markets (Australia, Europe and the Americas) they have essentially flatlined at 246,000 in China, well below pre-Covid (455,000) peaks.

As part of the reshuffle, Finance Minister Nicola Willis has picked up economic growth and grasps the importance of attracting international tourists.

“We will not get rich by selling to ourselves,” she told RNZ.

She wants to see work done on making visa processing times shorter, something that would be welcomed by those targeting the Chinese market.

While inbound tourism numbers have been marooned at about 85% for some time, the number of Kiwis taking holidays - and their cash - overseas has fairly much recovered to pre-pandemic levels. This has been seen in the recovery of the tourism sector in Fiji to beyond pre-Covid levels.

There are indications that Upston will take a look at funding allocations for tourism and marketing campaigns. Not before time. The sector needs a midterm reboot.

Anyone fortunate enough to be at Auckland’s waterfront for the SailGP last weekend got a reminder of how a big event can create a buzz and generate economic activity. Although mainly for domestic visitors this time, it showed the country is capable of staging world class events. Anything the Government can do to encourage more of them would be welcome.