As the peak season gets underway, I know many TIA members are geared up for a busy few months.
A record summer is underway at Christchurch Airport, with a 16% increase in passenger numbers compared to the same period last year driving an additional $150 million into South Island regions.
“This is outstanding growth and will top 20% in the month of February,” says Chief Commercial Officer – Aeronautical, Justin Watson. “It will move the Gateway to the South Island from around 5.9 million passengers last year to close to 6.4 million passengers this year and the most passengers the airport has ever handled in a single year.”
This summer will see:
- double-daily 777 services by long-standing airline partner Singapore Airlines, which has lifted services to Christchurch from 365 to 393 p.a.
- a 400% increase in A330 services from China Airlines
- Qantas adding a new 737 summer service between Christchurch and Brisbane flying four times a week
- a new year-round 787 China Southern Airlines service direct from Guangzhou, starting at three times a week
- significantly increased trans-Tasman services from several airlines including Virgin Australia
- increased domestic services from Air New Zealand and Jetstar
and next year a new Virgin Airlines 737 service to the Cook Islands.
“We estimate our new and additional services will bring in an additional 50,000 international visitors over the next 12 months,” Mr Watson says. “At an average visitor spend of $3200, so that is more than $150m in visitor spend – the majority of which stays in the South Island.”
He says official statistics show when Christchurch is the gateway, visitors leave around 86% of their spending in the regions of the South Island.
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Kidz Kingdom at Rainbow’s End has won a prestigious international award.
Beating entries from around the globe Kidz Kingdom, (known in the industry as an FEC or Family Entertainment Centre), won the 2015 IAAPA Top FEC of the World Award at a ceremony in Florida recently.
A mystery shopper from IAAPA (the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions) visited Kidz Kingdom to ascertain the standards in all areas from customer service, variety of rides, overall appeal of the area, right down to the café facilities. Survey results where then reviewed by an expert panel of seven international judges.
Costing just over $4.5m and fully covered, Kidz Kingdom features a number of rides for younger thrill seekers age eight and under.
It’s the overall attention to detail and ease for parents that really caught the judges eye, says Rainbow’s End Chief Executive Chris Deree.
“We really wanted to ensure that kids had fun day out but that mum and dad felt completely relaxed too. There is a separate entrance for Kidz Kingdom, so less time in queues, storage for all the bags, buggies etc as well as an indoor café where parents can still keep an eye on the kids but enjoy a good coffee at the same time.”
Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce and Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse say the Pathway Student Visa will allow international students to undertake a pathway of up to three consecutive programmes of study with selected education providers.
A pathway can be offered by a single education provider or in partnership with other selected education providers. They will be valid for a maximum of five years.
The Pathway Student Visas will be implemented from 7 December for an initial pilot period of 18 months and cover more than 500 primary, secondary and tertiary institutions.
Figures released earlier this month showed the number of international students studying in New Zealand on a student visa went up by 16% in the 2014/15 financial year to 84,856.
“The industry and Government believe that Pathway Student Visas will help retain more international students and make New Zealand more competitive with countries such as Australia which already offer pathway programmes,” Mr Joyce says.
“The International education industry is already worth $2.85 billion dollars in foreign exchange each year and Pathway Student Visas are an important initiative that will help is in our goal to double the value of international education to New Zealand by 2025.”
Mr Woodhouse says the new visas will provide assurance for students that they have a visa for their whole planned pathway of study.
“They will also lead to efficiency gains for Immigration New Zealand and the industry as students will not need to apply for as many visas,” Mr Woodhouse says. “There are safeguards in place, including requirements for providers to have a 90% global student visa approval rate for entry into the pilot and entering into a formal agreement between themselves to manage pastoral care and education progress.
“The 18 month period will enable INZ to evaluate outcomes of the pathway student visa pilot programme, such as student transition rates from the first to the second programme of study and how well the arrangements between providers are working.”
Tourism 2025 identifies international students as a high value opportunity.
“Ensuring we have the right people in the right place at the right time is a top priority for our industry and critical to achieving the industry’s Tourism 2025 goal of $41 billion annual revenue by 2025,” says Chris Roberts, Chief Executive of the Tourism Industry Association New Zealand (TIA).
TIA led development of People & Skills 2025 with support from business, education, training, government and other sector associations and organisations.
Mr Roberts says the tourism industry is already facing acute labour shortages in some popular destinations at peak times of the year, and given the industry’s rapid growth, the pressures will only intensify.
“The 550 attendees at this year’s 12 TIA Regional Tourism Summits overall ranked people and skills as one of the most important issues for both their own business and their region. And almost 90% of respondents to a new TIA industry survey agreed that service levels were an issue for the industry.
“The People & Skills 2025 framework will guide how the industry makes decisions on workforce development over the next decade. If we don’t develop suitable responses to these issues, we run the risk of leaving important aspects of our workforce needs to chance.”
Visitor arrivals to New Zealand are growing strongly, recently surpassing the annual 3 million milestone and expected to reach over 4.5 million by 2025.
Mr Roberts says it is vital the industry acts now to ensure it has a skilled workforce in place to service these visitors.
“Our people are one of the industry’s biggest assets and can help make New Zealand a preferred destination over other countries.”
People & Skills 2025 includes a set of actions that will guide the industry and government on both the supply of people for the industry and the skills they need to deliver on the Tourism 2025 aspiration.
The framework focuses on nine areas:
- Attract and develop a workforce of capable New Zealanders, supported by migrant labour where no suitable New Zealanders are available: Approximately 47,000 extra employees will be needed to support a visitor economy that will be 40% bigger by 2025.
- Those working in the tourism industry have the skills and can access the training and support needed to increase productivity and eliminate sources of visitor dissatisfaction.
- Each region develops the strategies they need to attract the right people at the right times to provide outstanding visitor experiences and support the growth of the industry.
- All tourism businesses, whether they are owner-operated or employ hundreds, have access to the people and skills they need to improve their productivity and profitability.
- Recognise the changing nature of the workforce, e.g. fulltime, part-time, gender, age, seasonal influence. By understanding the composition of the workforce and what employees want from their jobs, the industry is better positioned to make the right decisions on workforce strategies.
- Lower churn (staff turnover) rates to retain people and skills. Churn has long been a factor of the tourism industry, due to factors like seasonality, weekend and evening work, and possibly lack of fulltime hours, pay rates and low visibility of career paths.
- Embed a training culture – the tourism industry must collectively value and invest in training to upskill and respond to changing market needs, improve visitor satisfaction, productivity and profitability.
- Attract people who have the right attitude and interpersonal skills to deliver a memorable visitor experience.
- Engage with the education sector to improve the capability and capacity of the workforce.
Mr Roberts launched People & Skills 2025 at the 2015 TIA National Tourism Summit in Wellington on 19 November, attended by 260 industry and government leaders.
“Many large New Zealand tourism businesses and training organisations have workforce strategies in place. What People and Skills 2025 does is provide an overarching framework for our tourism industry and ensure an employer-led national direction on this vital issue is in one place.”
TIA is now working with industry and government partners to prioritise and implement the framework actions, including promoting tourism as a fantastic career.
Download the People & Skills 2025 framework.
Watch TIA’s new video to see highlights of our work on behalf of the tourism industry in 2015.
The call is part of the Association’s Tourism 2025 commitment to help build tourism infrastructure and encourage regional dispersal.
“We all know that the whole of New Zealand wants to go on holiday in January – and often to the same spots,” says NZMCA Chief Executive Bruce Lochore.
“As a result, roads are clogged and there is huge competition for limited space in the most popular spots.
“So rather than squashing in with everyone else, we are encouraging our members to spread their wings and discover some of the many amazing, lesser-known spots that New Zealand has to offer.”
The next issue of NZMCA magazine will feature dozens of off the beaten track locations where members can expect a warm welcome.
The new arrangements were formalised with the signing of Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) in Jakarta today between Immigration New Zealand (INZ), Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) and four approved travel agents.
Head of Immigration New Zealand, Nigel Bickle, who was at today’s signing, says,” these changes are good news for New Zealand and reflect the importance that the New Zealand government places on high value visitors from Indonesia”
“New Zealand is a fantastic destination for business travellers, with substantial growth underway in conference facilities in Auckland, Christchurch and Queenstown.”
Under the new arrangements, Indonesian incentive groups and other business event travellers will benefit from a more streamlined visa service with faster processing times of three days, reducing the paperwork they need to provide.
The four approved travel agents have been selected on their ability to attract high value and low risk business event visitors to New Zealand.
Also present at the MOU signing was Tourism New Zealand Regional Manager for South and South East Asia, Steven Dixon.
“Indonesia is one of our priority markets for tourism and business events, with almost 17,000 Indonesians visiting New Zealand over the past year – a 17 per cent increase on the previous year,” he says. “With numbers continuing to soar, I’m confident that attracting more high calibre visitors from Indonesia will have a positive impact on the New Zealand economy.”
Immigration Head Nigel Bickle is on the Public sector panel at the 2015 TIA Natonal Tourism Summit
More than 200 business and government leaders will come together at this month’s TIA National Tourism Summit to debate the big picture issues impacting tourism.
The travel bible has dubbed the island the “playground of the gods” and ranked it number five in the “Top 10 Regions 2016” list, alongside Transylvania, West Iceland, Valle de Viňales and Friuli’s wine regions in Italy.
Auckland Mayor Len Brown says the recognition comes hot on the heels of Conde Nast Traveler including Waiheke Island on the Best Islands in the World List last week.
Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development Chief Executive Brett O’Riley says this sort of recognition added weight to the city’s marketing efforts to attract domestic and international visitors.
“The tourism industry is one of New Zealand’s biggest export industries and is worth more than $5 billion a year to Auckland and supports more than 35,000 jobs,” he says.
“ATEED works alongside public and private sector organisations to make Auckland a more compelling and attractive visitor destination.
“More visitors to the region creates more jobs, more money for the economy and helps support the development of better infrastructure to accelerate the transformation of Auckland to the world’s most liveable city.”
The Top 10 Regions 2016 were independently nominated by the authors, staff and travel community of Lonely Planet, the world’s leading travel media company.
The chapter on Waiheke Island was written by Lonely Planet’s Chris Zeiher who has long been a fan of the region as a whole but made special mention of Ecozip Adventures, Mudbrick, Cable Bay, Oyster Inn, Wild On Waiheke and Fullers Vineyard Hopper.
“The secret is out and in 2016, Waiheke Island is welcoming the world to sample from its abundant offering and inviting all visitors to fall under its spell,” writes Mr Zeiher.
“Waiheke is an electric, heady mix set against a Buddha Bar soundtrack: fast yet slow all at the same time – there’s nowhere else on earth quite like it.”