Tourism industry set to expand

Harvey Bourne who will be moving from Queenstown to Northland to run the Tai Tokerau Resort College said the college could potentially see tourism overtake Northland's billion dollar farming industry. Photo / John Stone

Tourism experts say a new training college in Northland will expand the industry in the region making it a bigger earner than farming and could create up to an extra 300 jobs.

Queenstown Resort College yesterday launched a branch of their college in Paihia - the Tai Tokerau Resort College - which will open in April next year.

Harvey Bourne who will be moving from Queenstown to Northland to run the college said Tourism in Northland "definitely" had the potential to outgrow Northland's billion dollar-plus farming industry that is the region's biggest earner.

"Tourism is the biggest earner in New Zealand and has overtaken farming. It's growing and continuing to grow so I imagine it will definitely overtake farming (in Northland) if it hasn't already."

The new college - which will start with 25 students in April, growing to 75 by the end of the year and eventually to as many as 350 - will be a satellite campus of the 400-student Queenstown Resort College. Mr Bourne said the when the college is at full capacity a potential 300 jobs could be created.

"Our students will need to do internships and a majority of those internships will be in Northland. They're all fully paid," he said.

The college is aiming for a 60 per cent Maori roll and 25 per cent international students. The college has partnered with Shanghai CRED which will mean up to 50 Chinese students a year will have secured spots at the college, keeping costs for local students down to about $3500 per year. Fees for the Queenstown resort college are about $13,000 per year.

Former Associate Tourism Minister and Northland Regional Councillor Dover Samuels said on Monday he met with Chinese tourism business owners who came to look at New Zealand tourism. He said instead of coming to Northland they went in the opposite direction which was "quite typical" for tourists to do.

"Right now people arrive here and they go south, we really want to push for them to go north. Part of a survey we conducted about tourism showed people were first attracted to the clean green image and secondly they wanted a Maori experience that is why we need to focus and ensure we have cultural tourism," he said.

Bourne said cultural tourism was extremely popular.

"Cultural tourism is massive throughout the world and there's a lack of it in Queenstown. Bringing [a college] to Northland is the perfect opportunity to do that and show off our country," said Bourne.

Simon Phillips from Maori Tourism New Zealand said reaching out to train Northland Maori in tourism was a "no-brainer".

"They live here, they grew up here and they know the stories," he said

The college will initially run a Diploma in Hospitality Management course with an additional Diploma in Adventure Tourism Management course due to kick off in 2017. Earlier this year the company checked out Whangarei, Kerikeri, Paihia and Russell as possible locations, but chose Paihia due to its greater focus on tourism.