THE PRESS MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1982. Tourism as an industry

Press, 27 September 1982, Page 20

THE PRESS MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1982. Tourism as an industry

Mr W. N. Plimmer, the general manager of the Tourist and Publicity Department, has some encouraging ways of assessing the tourist industry. He explained them in Christchurch to a meeting of the Christchurch branch of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs and the Canterbury branch of the Economic Society of New Zealand. He said that for a long time the contribution of tourism to the economy could not be evaluated because statistics tended to be buried under other headings, such .as transport and retailing. Work done to distinguish tourism’s role in the economy had shown that the annual contribution of tourists to overseas exchange earnings was about $3OO million. If the tourist earnings of Air New Zealand were included, the industry brought New Zealand about half a billion dollars in overseas exchange a year. This put it above a number of other exchange-earning industries, but below some of the biggest. Mr Plimmer also gave the results of a survey done for the department. This examined various sectors of the economy to find out how much of each $lOO earned in foreign exchange was a net figure in New Zealand’s. balance of payments. The survey found that manufacturing needed $29 worth of imports for every $lOO earned; that farming required $l4 for every $100; and that tourism required $l3. These figures, if they take all the factors fully into account, such as the imported content of hotels, buses, other vehicles, fuel, and the servicing of debts incurred by overseas borrowing, make tourism a highly efficient industry as an earner of foreign exchange. In deciding the value of tourism to 1 the country, such comparisons are useful. The annual report of the department says that in the year ended March, 1982, 214,380 Australian visitors came to New Zealand. This was a percentage drop of 0.5 from the previous year. Percentage declines also occurred in the numbers of visitors from Canada (6.6 per cent), from the United States (1.9 per cent) and from

the Pacific islands (7.7 per cent). Five thousand more Japanese visitors came to New Zealand, bringing the total to 25,500; more people came from Britain (up by 5.2 per cent to 37,000) and from Western Europe (up 4.3 per cent to 26,000). Mr Plimmer said that the average tourist was now more sophisticated and had visited a number of countries before coming to New Zealand. This meant a demand for a greater variety of activities. Visits to the homes of New Zealanders and to farms were among the variations from the usual tourist programme. The potential of New Zealand’s tourist industry has been attracting interest overseas. Investment from overseas has been directed towards tourism and some international hotel and resort chains have entered the New Zealand market. Mr Plimmer did not spell it out, but there is a warning in this aspect of the industry. If too much of the important investment comes from other countries, some resentment is likely to be felt within New Zealand. Mr Plimmer is not one who believes that New Zealand is in any danger of tourist pollution. He thinks that New Zealand could double its tourist intake over the next few years without any great harm coming to the. country. He is more worried because, although New Zealand's tourist traffic increased last year, it was only by about 2 per cent. Competition for the international traveller can be fierce and travel has its trends that temporarily favour some parts of the world. Not all the promotion is necessarily done by New Zealand. Japan Air Lines will soon mount a $1.5 million advertising campaign to encourage Japanese to come to New Zealand. The picture that Mr Plimmer drew was of a healthy industry though, because of the slow growth last year, an industry somewhat uncertain about its future. Nevertheless it is an industry that is making a valuable contribution to New Zealand, and should continue to do so.