The Tourism Industry Association New Zealand has welcomed today’s announcement that Jetstar is introducing services to four regional New Zealand destinations – Nelson, Napier, Palmerston North and New Plymouth.

Tourism operators and their communities will need to work together to support Jetstar’s new regional routes and ensure their sustainability, TIA Chief Executive Chris Roberts says.

“Jetstar has signalled that the initial five regional routes will build a strong base for considering more regional destinations. We support their approach of building up a sustainable network that will encourage visitors to get off the beaten track and see more of New Zealand,” Mr Roberts says.

“Other regions that have missed out initially will be understandably disappointed but they should keep building their cases for Jetstar to service them in future.”

Tourism 2025 identified that air connectivity and regional dispersal are both crucial to increasing the tourism industry’s contribution to New Zealand’s economy.

The new services will provide a strong regional distribution option for international visitors flying Qantas as well as Emirates, China Eastern, China Southern, American Airlines and their other partners, Mr Roberts says.

Affordable regional air services also help to grow domestic tourism.

“Competitive regional airfares and regular services encourage New Zealanders to travel around the country, to visit family and friends, attend events and for short breaks,” Mr Roberts says.

Read Jetstar’s media release.

As a result, Rotorua hotels spend $6.8 million a year on food and drink supplies, with a high proportion going directly to local suppliers, according to a new study commissioned by the Tourism Industry Association New Zealand (TIA) nine member hotels in Rotorua.

The research shows that Rotorua hoteliers’ commitment to purchasing locally puts 59% or $32.4 million of total hotel expenditure into the local economy.

“We always knew our hotels had strong local linkages, but this project has highlighted the sheer volume of hotel expenditure flowing into the local economy through wages, contractors, food and beverage supplies and local government rates,” says TIA Hotel Sector Manager Sally Attfield.

Staff gross pay of $20.9 million made up the largest expense for Rotorua’s hotels, with $17.3 million being paid directly into the Rotorua economy as net pay to employees. The remaining $3.6 million was PAYE, KiwiSaver and other deductions, much of which potentially flows back into the local economy as government services and pensions.

Collectively the hotels provided 810 jobs during 2014, equivalent to 3% of Rotorua’s 28,000 person workforce.

Rotorua’s hotels spent $5.1 million on repairs, maintenance and capital expenditure of which $3.3 million had a local linkage. Almost without exception, the tradespeople were locally based, meaning hotels are supporting many jobs across the local building industry.

Hotels contributed $1.1 million directly into the local economy through rates paid to the Rotorua Lakes Council. Although a large portion of this expenditure was for user pays services consumed by the hotels, more than a third was for general rates which flowed on to benefit the whole Rotorua community.

Social responsibility also featured strongly among all the hotels, with $160,000 of benefit being provided to the Rotorua community during the year. Activities hotels were involved in included providing breakfasts for primary school children, fundraising for charity, offering free accommodation and dining for local raffles and staff time to work on community projects.

Destination Rotorua Chief Executive Mark Rawson says: “Tourism businesses spending locally are an important aspect of increasing the value of tourism for the Rotorua economy. Even with the national hotel chain purchasing policies placed upon them, Rotorua’s TIA hotels have been doing an exceptional job of spending locally and we look forward to the hotels increasingly sharing the love as the Rotorua economy realises its $1 billion visitor expenditure vision.”

The Rotorua visitor industry Vision 2030 seeks to increase the volume and value of the Rotorua tourism industry, growing existing Rotorua businesses and attracting new investors to the district.

New businesses to the district will improve the opportunity of hotels and other existing businesses to purchase locally and will help the visitor industry achieve its aspirational goal of $1 billion in visitor expenditure by 2030. This will contribute to the national Tourism 2025 goal of almost doubling total tourism revenue to $41 billion.

Highlights from the Rotorua TIA member hotel local linkage study

• $32.4 million a year or $90,000 per day of hotel expenditure has a linkage with the local Rotorua economy and community
• Rotorua TIA hotels provide 810 jobs which equates to 3% of Rotorua’s workforce being directly employed by Rotorua TIA hotels
• Rotorua TIA hotel employees collectively receive $17.3 million in net wages
• $3.3 million annual hotel expenditure on repairs, maintenance and capital expenditure has a local linkage
• $1.1 million of annual hotel expenditure on sales and marketing is paid to local marketing providers such as graphic artists, printers, sign-makers, web developers and radio advertising
• Rotorua Lakes Council receives $1.1 million annually from hotels in property rates
• Hotels spend well over $600,000 a year on milk and meat products sourced from New Zealand’s agricultural industry
• Hotels provide $160,000 of benefit to the local community through fundraising activity, donations of hotel products for raffles, donations of used but quality saleable linen and furniture, and staff time to work on community projects

About the Rotorua TIA member hotel local linkage study
Rotorua’s nine TIA member hotels for the 2014 year commissioned Destination Rotorua (a business unit of Rotorua Lakes Council) to undertake a study to quantify locally linked hotel expenditure.

TIA’s Annual Operating Survey of operating and financial activity was the source of total expenditure for the nine hotels. The DR survey determined the percentage of local linkage for each expenditure type. The results of the TIA and DR surveys were utilised to calculate a local linkage dollar value for each expenditure type.

Click here to read the full report.

In recent weeks, the TIA team and I have travelled the length of the country to deliver our Regional Tourism Summits.

In the new Cruise New Zealand economic impact summary report, released 20 August, the growth in passenger arrivals in 2015-16 is calculated to support 10,354 jobs and inject $543 million in value added to New Zealand, up from 8365 jobs and $436 million in 2014-2015, says Cruise New Zealand General Manager Raewyn Tan.

“The country is on the cusp of record growth. The next two seasons will break all New Zealand cruise records and this upward trend is expected to continue over the longer term. The strength of Australia as a source market of cruise passengers as well as New Zealand’s potential to attract the ships during China’s winter are influencing factors.”

“Not only will there be more ships, but the ships coming will also be larger on average”.

The upcoming 2015-2016 season will welcome 5 new ships including Explorer of the Seas, whose sister ship, Voyager of the Seas, is currently the largest in passenger numbers. Princess Cruises will increase their Australasian fleet to five, introducing the Golden Princess to New Zealand, and P&O Australia’s Pacific Pearl will increase their homeports out of Auckland significantly.

The 2016-2017 season will continue the excitement with Ovation of the Seas making its first call as the largest ever ship to visit New Zealand, and Holland America Line’s Noordam scheduled to make more open-jaw voyages, voyages that start or end in Auckland which are higher-yielding from pre and post stays in the country.

Cruise New Zealand is excited about the impending growth of the sector. But Tan says the looming Border Clearance Levy is casting some gloom over cruise’s bright future.

“While schedules are largely committed for the next two seasons, international cruise companies have advised they are considering relocating ships away from New Zealand as early as the 2017-18 season because of the new Travel Tax.”
Cruise New Zealand estimates the new tax could knock $85 million off the wealth the cruise sector generates for New Zealand in 2018-2019, resulting in 1629 less jobs supported by the sector. Ms Tan says these are significant losses compared to the $7 million – $8 million in tax the government hopes to collect from the cruise sector.
“Our new forecasts highlight the significant economic contribution the cruise sector will make to New Zealand over the coming years, and the important part we can play in helping the tourism industry achieve the Tourism 2025 goal of almost doubling annual revenue to $41 billion by 2025.

“A big percentage of the wealth cruise generates goes to regions throughout the country, with passenger spending on onshore activities, attractions, shopping and food and beverages, plus accommodation for visitors who fly in or out of New Zealand. It is vital the government invests in supporting that growth, rather than erecting barriers.

South Island travellers will have the choice of an extra 48 return services between Christchurch and Brisbane and 15 return services between Christchurch and Sydney.

Christchurch Airport Chief Commercial Officer – Aeronautical Justin Watson says the extra flights will help meet the huge Australian demand for the South Island, which there haven’t been enough flights to meet.

“The Qantas additional 12-week programme, with four flights per week, will bring an additional 16,128 seats between Christchurch and Brisbane, 12% more seats than the same period last year,” he says.

“Last year we had almost 60,000 visitors from Queensland fly into the South Island via Christchurch, which was 5.6% more than the previous year, so there is no doubt the demand is there and growing.

“Forecasts suggest the service will bring another 3,200 visitors to the South Island, most of them Australians. Christchurch is the most productive gateway for regions across the South Island, because more than 85% of international visitors go on to visit other regions. We also know these visitors spend up to six times more per day than local residents do, so they provide a massive boost to local consumption.

“Qantas hasn’t flown between Christchurch and Brisbane for ten years, so the return of the service offers travellers competition and choices. Importantly, it also offers a very strong one-stop international connection between Japan and the South Island through Brisbane. We encourage tourism operators to make the most of this connection to ensure this service grows.

“Any way you look at these extra services, they are a massive vote of confidence by Qantas in the market between Queensland, Japan and the South Island and they mean good news for every region in the South Island.”

Stuff reports the scheme was established 18 months ago to bring young people into the industry and expose them to career opportunities in airport services.

Christchurch Airport terminal manager Stewart Gibbons said the scheme was their answer to addressing a possible staff-shortage as people retired over the next five to 10 years.

“Because the industry is an interesting one, they will stay in it a long time. We wanted to bring some new blood into the industry,” he said.

About 5500 people worked at the airport every day and the average age of employees at the company was 45, Gibbons said.

The four young graduates came straight from school or from a diploma course and all had identified they wanted to work in an airport environment but did not know how to find a way in.

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YHA New Zealand, Explore Group, Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei Whai Maia Limited and ZeaYou Travel Limited will each receive $25,000 as the winners of the competition.

Norris Carter, Auckland Airport’s general manager of aeronautical commercial, says the competition was developed to help drive tourism growth from Asian markets during New Zealand’s off peak season of May to September.

“We wanted to inspire businesses to think innovatively about creating experiences that will attract Free Independent Travellers (FITs) in the traditional off-peak season,” says Mr Carter.

“We received many high calibre entries so it was a difficult decision to choose the winning applicants. The prize money will be used by the winners for the development of a seasonally-themed tourism experience for visitors from an Asian market of their choice,” finishes Mr Carter.

YHA New Zealand, one of the successful applicants, is New Zealand’s largest network of backpacker accommodation with a focus on helping youth travellers explore New Zealand.

Brian Westwood, YHA’s Manager, Marketing and Sales, says Chinese youth travellers have become the organisation’s third largest international market behind Germany and Australia.

“This grant provides us with a significant lift in our capability to grow consumer awareness and support among our target audience in China. This is the catalyst we have been looking for, to elevate our presence in China, not only for the short term but also for a much longer term social media strategy,” says Mr Westwood.

Explore Group, also a successful recipient, is a progressive and sustainable company offering an exciting range of tours and cruises with operations across multiple regions including Auckland and the Bay of Islands.

Carole Beggs, Sales Manager for Explore Group, says the company is delighted to work with Auckland Airport to grow its Asian FIT market.

“When Auckland Airport announced this competition we knew it was an excellent opportunity, regardless of the outcome, to really focus on our Asian market. It made us start to think more laterally about the sales and marketing of our product offering – ensuring that we were relevant and telling our stories in the right way to the growing Asian FIT market. We are really excited about the opportunities that will come from working with Auckland Airport to take these products to the market.”

The 27,746m2 development includes one of the largest all-weather entertainment centres in New Zealand, alongside convenience retail outlets such as a high end small format supermarket incorporating a pharmacy, service station and fast food outlets.

The development, with 260 carparks, is located within close proximity to Whakarewarewa Forest, the lakes, eastern suburbs and the inner city.

The cornerstone feature of the development is a 6,085m² entertainment zone set to open in the last quarter of 2016. The entertainment zone will incorporate Strike Zone Entertainment Rotorua (ten pin bowling), Megazone Laser Tag Rotorua, Timezone Games, a state of the art trampoline centre and the popular franchise, Chipmunks Playland & Café, all under one roof along with a conference room, party rooms and licensed café.

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Customs Minister Nicky Wagner has announced that more than $6 million from the Future Investment Fund will help fund an additional next-generation SmartGates – self-service machines that processes passengers using an e-Passport scanner and biometric information.

“Nine new generation SmartGates, which deliver a faster process, will be installed this year. The remaining 20 SmartGates will be installed over the next 18 to 24 months,” Ms Wagner says

The new SmartGates use a faster, more efficient, integrated process that incorporates the passport scanner into the gate, eliminating the kiosk and ticket. Passengers scan their passport and step up to the biometric scanner, which is an improvement on the current two-step process.

“With annual passenger numbers expected to increase to nearly 12.7 million by 2019, Customs will be well positioned to manage this increase efficiently and effectively.”

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