Tourism Satellite Account Commentary
Last updated:
November 2009
The Tourism Satellite Account 2009 provides key measures of tourism’s contribution to the New Zealand economy.
Tourism Satellite Account 2009 Report (1MB)
Year to March 2009 (released October 2009)
Tourism Expenditure
Total tourism expenditure for the year to March 2009 was $21.7 billion, up by 1.1% (or $226 million) on the previous year. This was driven by a 2.6% ($313m) increase in domestic visitor spend and by a 0.9% (-$87m) decrease in international visitor spend.
Tourism Contribution to GDP
Tourism’s direct and indirect value-added contribution to the economy was $15.0 billion (excluding GST, import duties and other taxes on production), which represents 9.1 % of the total New Zealand GDP.
Domestic and International Segments
Domestic tourists spent $12.4 billion and international tourists spent $9.3 billion. This represents a 57% domestic and 43% international contribution to total expenditure. Domestic travel activity includes both household travel of $9.7 billion, and business and government travel of $2.7 billion.
Tourism Export Earnings
International tourist expenditure in 2009 ($9.3 billion) represents 16.4% of the total export earnings ($56.7 billion). Tourism is New Zealand’s second largest export earner, surpassed by dairy ($9.97 billion or 17.6% of exports) in 2009.
Tourism Employment
Tourism is estimated to support directly and indirectly 185,000 full-time equivalent jobs, or 9.6% (one in ten) of the total New Zealand workforce in 2009.
Tourism Contribution to GST
Tourists contributed $1.59 billion in GST payments in 2009, or 11.1% of total GST on production received by Government.
Note:
The latest TSA 2009 has adopted the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) new standard method for deriving tourism value added. This change is in line with the direct contact principle of having strong economic link between the tourist and the supplier of goods or services.
The effect of the change has resulted in a reallocation of some components of direct tourism value added to indirect tourism value added. The reallocation does not affect aggregated total tourism value added, which is unchanged. All earlier estimates have been revised based on the new standard.
The report Tourism Satellite Account 2009 contains more detailed data and technical information.
See Also
ˆ Back to top