Tourism country’s key job creator, says executive

Press, 7 May 1983, Page 4

Tourism country’s key job creator, says executive

Parliamentary reporter At a time of record overseas debt and high external deficit, the Government was not putting its dollars where they gave the best export return, the chief executive of the National Travel Association, Mr A. C. Staniford, has said . The Treasury appeared to be the main stumbling block. “Tourism is just not in the mainstream of the Government’s economic thinking,” Mr Staniford said, “yet it returns more per dollar invested than either of the two main sectors — agriculture and manufacturing.” Instead, the Labour Party now seemed to be "singing our song,” he said. The National Travel Association has spent the last several years research-i ing the value to New Zealand of the international tourist dollar, and is about to push its findings hard at the Cabinet and Treasury. Until recently tourism did not feature in data used in Reserve Bank econometric models. Mr Staniford said that international tourism returned $65 for every dollar spent by the Government in promotion. Fishing returned $l6, and forestry $32. Every, dollar spent in tourism returned marginally more than the same dollar invested in farming and 16c more than investment in manufacturing. Tourism was also the country’s key job creator, Mr Staniford said. At a time when unemployment was growing, $lOO million more in overseas tourist dollars created 26,000 jobs. The same $lOO million increase in export earnings from farming created only 22,000 jobs and in manufacturing, 12,000 new jobs. “The Government seems to have the idea that money spent on tourism is wasted, but it is an investment that will return a tremendous amount of money to the country in the future.” Tourism had grown at almost 2 per cent in the 1982 calendar year against falls in other tourist desti-

nations — Britain’s tourist industry had dropped by 8 I per cent in the same period and Hawaii’s by 4 per cent. New Zealand tourism had 1 grown while meat, wool and dairy products had fallen. If the Government kept i its tourist promotion support at present dollar levels overseas tourism would still 1 grow next year by 4 per ; cent. “We have all the hotels 1 we need and all the major infrastructure to sustain that level for the next two or three years. We have a great big slack that we can : take up.” Mr Staniford said that New Zealand obviously re- , lied on its primary sector ' for its main income, but tourism should run second, , ahead of manufacturing, as ’ the country’s next largest export earner. The Government spent only $4.8 million in promoting New Zealand overseas as a tourist destination in I the March 1983 year. The 1 Australian state govem- . ments spent $36.7 million on promotion three years ago, and a lot more now. All over the world Governments saw their proper , role as promoters of their I countries as tourist destina- , tions, and an extra $2 million added to the Vote: Tourism promotion grant from the Government would nbt go amiss. 1 “What we really want is 4 per cent of total overseas . earnings from tourism,” Mr ’ Staniford said. That would i give $11.9 million. j Tourism was a high user > of labour, and although em- • ployees needed to be skilled, > highly specialised labour j was not needed. The Minisi ter of Labour, Mr Bolger, I was seeing the potential of , tourism as an employer, and had asked the Vocation 1 Training Council to look at ' the industry. , The North American mart ket was probably the most ; lucrative for New Zealand, ■ and very little needed to be done in New Zealand to ; attract that market. > “North Americans want i to come to New Zealand for its clean air, open spaces

and friendly people. They like visiting places to see how the people live. They also like a country to be safe to visit, and with the Sheraton chain setting up here, they feel at home coming. “But we could spend all of a $2 million increase in promotion funds in one night on television advertising in North America,” he said. The tourist industry had not had its case organised for a long time, and was only now ready to present it forcefully. Its chief thrust would be that tourism was not a “fun thing” that wasted tight money, but was a key earner of overseas funds and a key employer. “We will hammer that home at every opportunity,” he said.