New Zealand Tourism needs foreign visitors to prosper

Friday, August 19, 2022

The tourism industry was the largest export for New Zealand, before Covid-19. Back in 2019, tourism generated around $41 billion for the New Zealand economy alone. When corona virus arrived and the country closed down its borders, it dropped to $26 billion by 2021.

The industry got saved by the domestic tourism from a complete fall down, however, the operators of the local tourism sector say that in order to prosper rather than just staying alive, they needed international tourists to come back.

Mike Grogan, the owner of Cathedral Cove Kayak Tours in Hahei, explains that when the border shut down, he lost around 80% of his valuable customers.

To lose them was a major setback; however, that being said, Kiwis were huge for them. He says that they’ve got the philosophy where they say that hey, half a loaf of bread is better than no bread at all.

Getting domestic tourists was helpful, but the country needed the international friends to get back.

Tourism New Zealand on Wednesday introduced its new ad campaign. This was launched to attract foreign tourists to New Zealand. While they’re trying hard to pull “high quality” tourists from abroad, the pandemic at the same time taught the sector that the local tourists are equally vital for their continued existence.

Tourism New Zealand CEO Rene De Monchy said that he thinks one of the learnings is the significance of domestic visitors for tourism. The hardiness of the sector will be built on New Zealanders getting out and about.

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