OPINION
As our international borders reopen to allow visitors from all over the world to explore Aotearoa New Zealand once again, we ask ourselves, are we ready? Surely it should be an exciting time as we welcome visitors after more than two years of largely having our country all to ourselves. I love sharing my place with others and have been looking forward to this, yet still, I wonder whether we are ready.
Destination readiness and destination management go hand in hand as we prepare for the future, and the visitor industry has been busy working towards this very moment.
Earlier this month Taitokerau Northland hosted almost 100 tourism professionals at the Regional Tourism New Zealand (RTNZ) Te Ūnga Mai wānanga tuatahi as part of a professional development programme designed to build the destination management capability of 31 regional tourism organisations (RTOs) from around the country. Destination management is about better management of all elements that make up a visitor experience, while at the heart of it is working together to understand what local communities want, protecting what we have and sharing the benefits of the visitor industry.
Coming together over this topic at the four-day event held at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds proved an invaluable forum where all regions could discuss their unique opportunities and challenges and learn from each other by sharing practices to apply to our own destination management journeys. Speakers from all over the world also shared their insight from as far away as Copenhagen and North America, to our own Tourism New Zealand, Tourism Industry Aotearoa, and Air New Zealand.