Tourism a Positive Contributor to the Economy
Last updated:
April 2008
Media Statement
6 December 2007 EMBARGO 2pm
New research into the net outcomes of tourism activity for central and local government, tourism operators, society and the environment was released today by Tourism Minister Damien O’Connor.
The Yield Research Programme is a three year project undertaken by Lincoln University with funding from the government, the Tourism Industry Association and a number of its members.
“At the highest level the study found that tourism is a positive contributor to New Zealand. While this is something we have known for some time, we now have solid research that verifies the industry’s contribution to our economy,” said Mr O’Connor.
Key findings of the research include that tourism provided $429 million in revenue for central government in 2003-04, that many sectors within the tourism industry have positive financial yields, that tourism is largely cost neutral for local government and that tourism generates a range of benefits and costs for communities but communities continue to offer strong overall support for tourism.
“While the tourism industry continues to prosper, this knowledge enables us to focus on assessing the benefits we already receive from tourism and look at how tourism firms can become more profitable, how government can consider its tourism investments more thoroughly and how we can ensure that our communities gain from tourism activity.”
Key information and advice has also come out of the research:
- A Financial Yield Calculator has been developed so operators can monitor their financial performance and compare themselves to others within the tourism industry
- An examination is underway on how to enhance the performance of tourism firms and the best ways that tourism related business assistance programmes can be organised
- Ongoing measures of the financial performance of tourism firms to track progress and improvement over time are being developed
- Further research funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology has developed from this programme.
“The vision of the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2015 is for tourism to be valued as the leading contributor to a sustainable economy. Tourism is the first large sector of the economy to analyse its performance in this way and in doing so it will be much better placed to achieve the vision of the Strategy,” said Mr O’Connor.
Copies of the reports can be found at: www.tourismresearch.govt.nz.
Contact: Kelly Gunn (Press Secretary), Phone (04) 471 9878 or 021 227 9878
ENDS
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