New Zealand Tourism Upbeat On Growth Targets: Hopes To Gain More From Events Like Cricket World Cup Next Year

The tourism sector in New Zealand is upbeat about its growth prospects and hopes the 11-year target it set for doubling the contribution to the economy is quite achievable. At the same time, the tourism industry admits that there is still a lot of work to be done. The coming year is expected to be good for New Zealand tourism as many global events are set to be hosted in the country. They include Cricket World Cup and junior soccer World Cup.

Chris Roberts, CEO, Tourism Industry Association made these observations at the association's recent summit in Wellington and added, "we have made a promising start but there is a long way to go". It was in March this year, the Tourism Industry Association unveiled a $41 billion revenue target by 2025, with an annual growth rate of 5 percent. At the moment, the tourism sector is contributing about $22.6 billion. Last year, international tourism in New Zealand grew 7.4 percent but domestic tourism's growth was just 3.2 percent, reported Yahoo News. In his address, Roberts said New Zealand has to ensure that it offers the best infrastructure and tourism products to get the desired share of growth in world travel.

Hobbit Factor

The main drivers of New Zealand tourism in the international market had been hobbits, foreign students and Chinese tourists. The increased tourist arrivals from the United States and China pushed up tourism spending by $1.1 billion in the past 12 months. Many surveys have revealed that New Zealand visitors are heavily influenced by the Hobbit movies and raised the curiosity levels. The films have been a great marketing tool for Tourism NZ and it succeeded in making a strong connection between Middle-earth and New Zealand, reported Stuff.Co. Nz The third film in the Hobbit trilogy, "The Battle of the Five Armies", will be premiered at London next month and is hoped that a new impetus to tourist arrivals will come out of that.

China Pie

The Tourism association expressed the hope of attracting a sizable number of Chinese tourists travelling the world. Their numbers are expected to touch 200 million by 2020 and New Zealand will have to compete for its share. The meeting also noted that Australia is New Zealand's biggest source of overseas tourists but a big competitor as well. However, a note of caution against excessive China focus, came from Westpac chief economist Dominick Stephens. He told the summit that heavy reliance on China will be risky as New Zealand must take note of its ups and downs in the economy.

Stephens cautioned that factors such as slow down in China's economic growth and the crackdown on corruption will lead to curbing of conspicuous consumption and may affect outbound travel. He also asked tourist operators not to expect too much from Chinese spending at least in the next few seasons. The tourism industry must also expect the strengthening of New Zealand dollar as commodity prices are improving, he noted. But the chances of domestic tourism getting stronger continue to be bright.