The Partnership Approach:
In mid-2000 the Minister of Tourism Mark Burton and the Tourism Industry Association agreed to a unique public/private approach to developing a 10-year industry plan.
The New Zealand Tourism Strategy Group was announced in August 2000.
Its members are:

• Chairman Evan Davies (Sky City)
• Geoff Burns (Air New Zealand)
• Glenys Coughlan (Tourism Industry Association)
• George Hickton (Tourism New Zealand)
• Hugh Logan (Department of Conservation)
• Dr Ngatata Love (Te Puni Kokiri)
• Kerry Marshall (Local Government NZ)
• Mike Noon (Office of Tourism and Sport)
• Brian Roberts (Destination Northland)
• Wally Stone (Whalewatch Kaikoura).

The Development and Consultation Process:
In October 2000, the Tourism Strategy Group appointed Cap Gemini Ernst and Young as project managers.
Existing data and research material was reviewed.
A cross section of over 120 people with detailed industry knowledge attended ten focus group meetings.
Submissions were received from a cross section of individuals and organisations.
One-on-one and group meetings were held with a number of sector participants.
A Maori Tourism Advisory Group (MTAG) was established to advise on matters related to Maori.
Over 400 people in 9 locations attended the Tourism Industry Association's 2001 Roadshows.
The Tourism Strategy Group held regular meetings to consider and debate issues, test and develop ideas and map out a clear direction for the sector going forward.

The Key Principles:

• Sustainability: All sector participants will need to embrace the concepts of manaakitanga (hospitality) and kaitiakitanga (guardianship).
• Yield driven: Strategies must increase visitor spend, rather than focusing solely on growing visitor numbers.
• Maori participation: Maori to play a key role in tourism and increasingly benefit from it.
• Public/private sector commitment: This commitment will need to move beyond one year funding cycles and strong public/private partnership will be required.

The Key Objectives:

• Secure and conserve a long-term future: Conserving the natural, built, cultural and social environment with which tourism interacts.
• Market and manage a world-class visitor experience: Attract more visitors who stay longer and spend more, visit at different times of the year and visit different parts of New Zealand.
• Work smarter: Minimise duplication, use common systems and practices, maximise collaboration and reduce barriers to development.
• Be financially and economically prosperous: Achieve longterm viability and prosperity by balancing the other three key objectives.

The Key Recommendations:

• Aligning the Sector
  New Tourism New Zealand
  The group is recommending the enhancement of TNZ as a jointly owned and funded private/public sector organisation to lead international branding and marketing. It will work closely with the private sector and regional tourism entities to leverage sales and marketing opportunities and ensure destination management and destination marketing are closely linked.

  New Regional Tourism Organisations (RTOs)
  It is proposed that RTOs will take on an expanded role in destination marketing and management, domestic and international marketing and regional tourism planning and development. They will facilitate the provision of services to tourism operators.
  Consolidation of common functions and a reduction in RTO numbers is also recommended.

  Ministry of Tourism
  Enhance the Office of Tourism and Sport, ahead of the creation of a Ministry of Tourism to lead a whole-of government approach to tourism and to strengthen the policy function.

  Tourism Industry Association
  TIA continues to lead industry advocacy and develops the capabilities of small and medium-sized businesses.

• Securing and Conserving a Long Term Future
  Environment
  
  • Ministry for the Environment, Office of Tourism and Sport and Tourism Industry Association develop and promote resource use efficiency initiatives and environmental management systems to achieve agreed international benchmarks (including carbon neutrality) by 2010.
  • Department of Conservation monitors visitor impacts on the protected environment and intervenes to manage these impacts.
  • Department of Conservation invests in maintaining existing, and developing new, recreational services and facilities on conservation lands to support increased visitor growth without damaging the environment.
  • Adopt a whole of sector model to improve efficiency in tourism planning and development.

  Maori Culture and Participation

  • Maori partner with RTOs on regional tourism planning and development, destination marketing and destination management
  • Build Maori capability and increase Maori equity investment in tourism to enable greater participation of Maori at regional and national levels
  • Facilitate the creation of representative Maori tourism bodies at regional level.
  Cultural Identity
  • Incorporate cultural heritage thinking into decision making on guidance from RTOs, Maori, the arts, cultural and heritage sector and Ministry of Culture and Heritage
  • Tourism operators, Maori, new Tourism New Zealand, and RTOs, in conjunction with arts and cultural sector, investigate opportunities to develop cultural tourism products that will differentiate New Zealand in the global marketplace.

  Community Understanding and Support

  • Tourism Industry Association and New Tourism New Zealand to undertake a range of initiatives to increase stakeholder understanding and support for tourism.

• Marketing and Managing a World Class Visitor Experience
  Building a Compelling Brand
  • Encourage widespread adoption of common brand architecture and the New Zealand fern mark.
  • Improve the use and quality of authentic and contemporary Maori experiences through a mechanism such as a Maori mark of authenticity.

  Creativity and Co-ordination in Marketing

  • Develop and implement joint initiatives across all elements of the marketing mix, to ensure domestic and international visitors receive a consistent message.

  Year Round Destination Marketing

  • Increase development and packaging of year-round, regionally differentiated and high yield products and events. The aim is for these products and events to account for an increased proportion of the product range.

  Distribution Channel Positioning

  • Develop a tourism distribution channel strategy to increase long term distribution access and profile of New Zealand tourism product

• Working Smarter
  Sector structure
  Structural recommendations as outlined in Aligning the Sector, and in addition:
  • Tourism Industry Association in conjunction with other industry associations and operators, to investigate rationalising the number of associations and/or making membership of multiple associations less cumbersome.

  Public Sector Commitment

  • Territorial local authorities and central government confirm their long term commitment to the tourism sector and confirm required infrastructure

  Regional Tourism Organisation Capability

  • Establish New RTOs with an enhanced role.
  • New RTOs work closely with regional and local government to closely align destination marketing and destination management
  • A working group of new RTOs develops detailed options and recommendations for RTO functions, including a reduction in the current 25 RTOs
  • Reduce RTO costs by developing a shared back office business case for common functions

  Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) capability

  • Tourism Industry Association, in conjunction with tourism operators, delivers a range of business tools, methods, templates and resources to further develop the capability of SME's

• Being Financially and Economically Prosperous
  Pricing and Yield Management
  • Tourism Industry Association leads sector initiatives to research, develop and promote the use of pricing and yield management strategies to improve financial and economic viability
  • Tourism operators increase their use of pricing strategies to improve yield Tourism operators explore premium pricing opportunities for quality and authenticity.
  • Tourism operators use competitive yield management strategies as a mechanism to improve utilisation of current assets and infrastructure, and improve planning and infrastructure development.
  • Work with airlines to ensure airline yield and capacity issues are taken into account when targeting visitors and developing products.

• Enabling the Sector
  Technology
  • Tourism Industry Association and New Tourism New Zealand facilitate the development and implementation of a sector wide technology strategy.

  People Development

  • Training organisations, in conjunction with tourism operators, refocus the delivery of training to better meet the needs of small and medium sized businesses.
  • Reduce the number of providers of tourism training.
  • Tourism Industry Association work with SkillNZ to obtain a greater proportion of industry training funding.

  Research and Development

  • Office of Tourism and Sport in conjunction with the Tourism Research Council New Zealand establish continuation of funding for core tourism data for at least the next five years.
  • Work to improve the level of public funding applied to tourism research.

  Infrastructure and Investment

  • Central and local government and the private sector agree on roles and responsibilities for tourism infrastructure needs.

  Quality Management

  • Qualmark, in conjunction with operators, develops a quality brand, sector standards and an effective national accreditation framework for tourism.

The Next Stage:
The Minister of Tourism Mark Burton and the Chair of the Strategy Group Evan Davies will jointly manage the implementation stage. In developing this plan they will be mindful of the invaluable contribution of every member of the Tourism Strategy Group, and the equally valuable contribution they continue to make during the implementation process.

All sectors have responsibility to address issues they directly impact on them.

The Government has already taken steps that reflect the direction of the Strategy:

• Additional funding for the Department of Conservation has been announced, including additional money to upgrade visitor facilities such as huts, shelters and public toilets.
• The Tourism Research Council New Zealand has overseen the release of the Tourism Satellite Account 1997 and will continue to coordinate research and information.
• An Officials group, led by the Office of Tourism and Sport, has been established to consider the recommendations that are relevant to Government and report on options and priorities for implementation. This group will report by the 18th July.

Funding:
Initial analysis indicates that one-off additional funding of $5-11 million is required over a three to four year period to implement the major development initiatives.
This funding is proposed to be sourced from central government, local government and industry.
The degree of on-going funding required to support sustainable tourism growth is more difficult to assess.
There is scope to use existing funding more efficiently.
The Strategy suggests that to achieve the identified 2010 targets additional funding will be required from all sector participants.

The Future - 2010 Based on the strategies and approaches recommended in the Strategy, it is envisaged that in 2010:

• Visitors will be seeking authentic life experiences. They will be increasingly technology savvy.
• Maori will participate fully in all facets of tourism.
• Product authenticity will be protected.
• The New Zealand experience will stand out as a unique global offering.
• Tourism products will have been developed in a way that protects our environment, culture and built heritage.
• New Zealand will have met its carbon neutrality targets and will lead the world in environmental management strategies.
• A strong global brand will be established and marketed internationally.
• Destination marketing and destination management will be closely aligned.
• New products will be available, which are high-yield, available throughout the year and throughout the country.
• The number of organisations servicing the tourism sector will have reduced.
• Significant investment will have been made in technology
• Improved research and development will underpin decision making.
• Sector profitability will have improved through a combination of factors, including increased visitor numbers, better calender spread and better pricing and yield strategies.
• Communities will understand the benefits of tourism and will be welcoming hosts.
• Tourism activity will provide at least an additional 100,000 jobs and Tourism will be seen as a highly desirable career choice.

The full "New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2010" is available from: www.executive.govt.nz and www.tianz.org.nz