Hon Murray McCully
Minister of Tourism

• POLICIES FOR PROGRESS INDEX
• TOURISM RESULTS "OUTSTANDING"
• MILLENNIUM TOURISM BOOST
• RECOGNISING MILLENNIUM OPPORTUNITIES
• THE OPPORTUNITY
• QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
• BOOST FOR TOURISM

The Minister says the United States market has been "on a roll" this year, after declining visitor numbers since 1995.

"The United States has now moved ahead of both Japan and the United Kingdom in terms of visitor numbers. North America is running up 13% this year on last year. Next year we are targetting 200,000 visitors and $590 million from that market."

Mr McCully says New Zealand is "starting to even things up" with Australia, with visitor numbers up 14% on last year.

"We are giving special attention to the market of 11 million Australians on the eastern seaboard. We are targetting over 520,000 visitors from Australia in 1999, up 11% on this year, and expect $840 million in earnings."

The United Kingdom continued to show "solid growth, off a big base".

"We are focussing on 165,000 United Kingdom visitors next year, returning $445 million.

Mr McCully says exchange rate movements have given New Zealand "a serious marketing edge".

"While we cannot and should not sell on price, there is no denying the impact of a 25% drop in the value of the New Zealand dollar against the United States dollar in the last year, and 27% against the United Kingdom pound."

Mr McCully said he was "very confident" of the target of 1.54 million visitors next year and $3.5 billion in earnings.

ENDS