Big market for arts seen in tourism

Press, 5 August 1985, Page 5

Big market for arts seen in tourism

The potential tourist market for New Zealand arts is enormous the Southern Regional Arts Council conference was told at the weekend.

The council’s executive officer, Mr Graeme Gorton, said that this was the message of all guest speakers. These included the Minister for the Arts and Associate Minister of Tourism, Mr Tapsell, and the deputy general manager of the Tourist and Publicity Department, Mr Peter Brookes.

Mr Tapsell said New Zealand needed the arts to build a new sense of nationalism.

Part of the Government’s agenda was to create a new understanding of what it meant to be a New Zealander. This could not be achieved without promoting a widespread reawakening of New Zealand culture, arts and crafts, he said.

No longer could the arts be regarded as the harmless pursuit of the affluent and “a few oddballs” or as a relatively unimportant pursuit and a low-return area of investment, Mr Tapsell said. Instead it had to be acknowledged that the arts could provide jobs, a tourist attraction, export earnings

and “a valuable third dimension to New Zealand’s foreign policy.” Mr Tapsell said he was proud that, in the midst of “a difficult economic period,” the Government had moved to double the vote to the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council and that, with a contribution from the Lottery Board, its budget was now at an all-time high. Four persons were elected to the council, Messrs Fenn Shaw of North Canterbury, Tony Borick, of Dunedin, Mark Winter, of Invercargill, and Ms Deborah O’Neill, of Fairiie.