Minister of Tourism Peeni Henare unveils Draft Environment Action Plan for public consultation

Minister of Tourism Peeni Henare unveiled a draft plan for the next phase of the Tourism Industry Transformation Plan today. Photo / George Heard

Minister of Tourism Hon Peeni Henare announced the launch of a Draft Environmental Action Plan (DEAP) for public consultation today, inviting feedback on six initiatives that aim to push the industry into a ‘regenerative model’.

The DEAP is part of the second phase of the Tourism Industry Transformation Plan. The new draft outlines six Tirohanga Hou, which provide potential key aspirations for addressing climate and biodiversity-related challenges.

What are the 6 Tirohanga Hou?

1. Exploring decarbonisation, how NZ can achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and uphold commitments to the Paris Climate Agreement.

2. Championing biodiversity and operators’ understanding and minimising their impacts.

3. Managing and reducing visitor impacts for te taiao.

4. Accelerating uptake of technologies within the industry.

5. Incentivising tourism businesses to adopt practices that enable sustainability and regeneration.

6. Optimising and resourcing the tourism system to support regeneration.

In a summary document, the plan’s actions are described as being “deliberately light on implementation detail” to give space to others to shape key ideas and directions – the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is accepting feedback on the draft plan until July 14.

Henare shared his expectations for the plan while speaking to media after a joint announcement with Air NZ this morning, at the airline’s central Auckland offices.

Henare said he hoped the draft would be a starting point for important discussions.

“What we’re hoping through this draft plan is that we can have a serious discussion that will allow us to build a very clear action plan in order to meet some the already ambitious targets that are out there.”

This draft was created by a leadership group of figures from the tourism industry, unions, government and Māori.

Further investment into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) studies was also announced today - the Government and Air NZ will invest over $2 million into studies considering the potential to produce SAF in Aotearoa.

The DEAP has been released as a part of the second phase of the Tourism Industry Transformation Plan. The first phase, called Better Work, considered potential investments and improvements for people and businesses within the industry.