2007 Holiday Accommodation Parks of New Zealand Conference and Trade Exhibition
Friday 20 July 2007, 9:09AM
By Hon Damien O'Conner, speech
573 views
The ultimate goal in any sector is to maintain a balanced lifestyle, while developing a growing business in a thriving industry.
---------------------------------
Kia Ora.
Thank you for the invitation to speak to you today.
It is my pleasure to be here in Hamilton, to speak with you about your sector, and the tourism industry in general.
The theme of this conference is "Balancing Business and Body" and I think this a particularly relevant theme for an organisation of tourism operators to be addressing.
More so than many other industries, many people get into the tourism and accommodation sectors as much for the lifestyle it affords them, as for the financial rewards.
The beautiful locations many of you reside and work in, and the regular contact with a diverse range of people on a daily basis, are great reward.
Your businesses also provide the means by which New Zealanders seek to balance the stresses and commitments of their everyday life with relaxation and enjoyment.
Of course, the ultimate goal in any sector is to maintain a balanced lifestyle, while developing a growing business in a thriving industry. It is called sustainability. Some call it survival.
The Government's vision for tourism is of a sustainable high value, high performing sector that provides a world-class tourist experience. I envisage this future ensuring financial and economic prosperity for the tourism industry, and all of you here today.
Tourism Strategy
At your conference last year, I told you that work had begun on updating the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2010. A lot of work has gone on since then, and over the past six weeks, the draft was available to any and all interested parties for public discussion.
The time for feedback is now over, and the work of finalising the strategy has begun. When completed, I am confident that the Ministry of Tourism, Tourism New Zealand and the Tourism Industry Association will come up with a significant practical contribution to the future of our industry and all those participating in it.
I am here today, of course, because holiday parks are an important part of the industry, and this makes you a key partner in pursuing the goals for the future.
Holiday Parks
In the year to March 2007, caravan parks and camping grounds hosted over 6.1 million guest nights, which equates to 20% of New Zealand's total guest nights. This represents an increase from March 2006 of 65,000 guest nights (or 11.5%). Congratulations.
It is therefore vital to ensure that HAPNZ is engaged in the process of moving the New Zealand tourism industry into the next decade and beyond.
Tourism Strategy
To this end, I was pleased to note that HAPNZ contributed to the strategy development process, providing valuable support for a number of policy approaches, as well as very helpful comments on areas where we could look to improve, revise or be more specific in our approach.
Tourism and the economy
Tourism is a thriving and vital part of the New Zealand economy. In the year ended March 2007, just under two and a half million international visitors came to New Zealand, while domestically, New Zealanders took 14.7 million overnight trips.
Combined, domestic and international tourism contributed 9% of New Zealand's GDP, and tourism remains our nation's largest earner of foreign exchange.
It is important to note that the industry delivering these returns is primarily dominated by small and medium enterprises, much like the membership here today.
Of course, as well as providing us with positive input, the consultation process around the strategy has also served to highlight a range of challenges ahead.
I would like to run through these challenges.
Two areas of importance to both your sector, and the industry as a whole, are those of yield and seasonality.
Yield
First, yield. One of the main focuses of the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2015 is to increase yield. We need to grow the expenditure of visitors who come to New Zealand, as well as grow yield for individual businesses through the value they obtain from each visitor.
Obviously, the easiest way to increase yield is to simply increase prices.
However, if we do this, we also have to enhance quality. Value for tourists alone cannot be sacrificed in the pursuit of profit.
The additional value obtained from each visitor must be matched by added value for each visitor - with well-motivated, energetic and knowledgeable staff an important part of this equation.
I realise I'm preaching to the converted somewhat in discussing the importance of quality with you, but across the industry I'd like to see us lift our game, particularly with a better uptake of Qualmark. I understand 33 per cent of you are Qualmark accredited.
For instance, I hope that you'll all take up the challenge of becoming accredited under the Qualmark environmental weightings, which are expected to be up and running next summer.
Coupled with efforts to ensure consumer awareness of Qualmark and the relevance its assessments to operators, this will help develop environmental sustainability in our industry, and provide another indicator of quality for tourists planning their next holiday.
Seasonality
I was pleased to note in the comments HAPNZ provided on the draft NZTS 2015 that you are fully aware of the issues of yield and seasonality, and how they are linked.
By increasing numbers in the shoulder seasons we can promote growth in the industry without compromising the experiences of summer visitors with overcrowding.
To this end, we need to encourage people to travel to and around New Zealand outside the peak summer season, in October and November, and April and May, when the weather is usually still good and there are plenty of empty spaces available.
The recent changes to daylight savings hours will helps us with this, as well as initiatives like Tourism New Zealand's "What's On" marketing campaign in Australia.
This seeks to entice people to come here in the shoulder seasons and is already starting to pay dividends, with an additional 4769 Australian visitors between March and May this year. I've set George Hickton a target of 1 million Australian visitors and I'm sure he'll achieve that in the next couple of years.
There has also been the recent "Green and Gold" campaign to convince the Aussies that New Zealand is a fantastic destination to come to in autumn.
The promotion of events to attract people to regions they might not otherwise have visited at certain times of the year is another important way we can address the seasonal distribution of visitors.
Domestic Tourism
Of course, these issues are also closely connected to domestic tourism, and the emphasis we as a country place on it.
The draft strategy recognises that domestic travel is particularly important in the low season, and product development for the domestic market often provides a springboard for international growth opportunities.
I applaud the AA's campaign inviting New Zealanders to see more of our wonderful country.
I am pleased that the draft NZTS 2015 calls for the establishment of a working group to develop a specific domestic tourism strategy, and I would welcome your organisation's input in moving forward with this initiative.
Local Government
This brings me to another important issue in the draft strategy - that is, local government. Local government is a key partner and participant in the tourism sector.
In order to ensure tourism needs are taken into account when planning for the development of local events or infrastructure, we need to ensure tourism operators are involved in local and regional decision-making.
Local councils must be made aware of the importance of tourism to their economies. Many are, some are not.
To address this need, the NZTS 2015 will encourage tourism operators and organisations to get more involved in local debate, including the addition of tourism related policy in annual and district plans.
By working to achieve greater local government involvement by the industry, we can ensure that regions, all of which have tourism potential, can fully utilise that potential to provide both better quality services and off-season attractions, and contribute to yield and profitability for the whole industry.
Staffing Shortages
An issue that the tourism industry continues to grapple with is one of staff shortages.
There is a concern at the lack of quality staff available. This is particularly evident in resort areas, but is also a factor throughout the entire country.
It begs the obvious question: If you are just leaving school, why would you consider a career in tourism?
What are the wages and conditions like? What are the career prospects? What training is available? And, what can we as a country do to ensure we have sufficient staff who are motivated and smart?
These are the questions we must keep asking ourselves. If we are to have a sustainable high value, high performing sector that provides a world-class tourism experience we need to come up with the some of answers fairly quickly.
We are making progress. From the Labour-led Government's point of view, we have increased the number of tertiary tourism qualifications and apprenticeships.
And for low skilled job placement, is the visa fast-track system currently being utilised in Queenstown, which allows foreign visitors with a job offer to apply for a seasonal work visa while in New Zealand.
The Government has also moved to make working in New Zealand more attractive, to stem the tide of those leaving for Australia.
Lifting annual leave entitlements to four weeks and providing saving incentives through KiwiSaver match what is on offer across the Tasman and give people another couple of reasons either not to go in the first place, or to come back if they do go.
Regardless of the progress, however, staff recruitment and retention is an area we all must continue to focus on. I welcome all initiatives that will help us get to where we want to be - be they from the industry or at a national level.
Reserves Act 1977 and Freedom Camping
Issues of particular relevance to HAPNZ are holiday parks on DoC or local government reserve land, and freedom camping. I know HAPNZ is in regular contact with the Government on these issues, and I am sure that continued negotiation and engagement will provide solutions which benefit us all.
I meet reasonably regularly my colleague, Conservation Minister Chris Carter on topics such as concessions and the rules about reserve land, and with respect to freedom camping, the Waste Management Working Group is monitoring the ways in which individual councils handle that difficult issue.
For example, recent attempts in Kaikoura to crack down on freedom camping are being considered in order to see if there are lessons that can be passed on to other councils.
Information Technology
I am very aware that a challenge to some of you in achieving your business goals, particularly to address yield issues, is in your access to information technology. This is especially so in the rural areas where so many of you operate.
Wider access to broadband is essential for the tourism sector. In fact, fast, competitively-priced access to the internet is a matter of necessity for New Zealand's economic future.
A package of measures has recently been announced to address New Zealand's relatively poor broadband performance. This follows the telecommunications stock-take which was released in May last year.
I encourage you to look out for an upcoming discussion paper, due from the Ministry of Economic Development at the end of this month, about Telecom's Service Obligations and Rural Broadband.
Information gathered from the survey and discussion paper will feed into a Strategy for Rural Broadband that is due out before the end of the year.
You can be sure that I will be advocating for the needs of the tourism industry, in particular for operators in remote areas, as I know many of you are.
These are just some off the challenges and opportunities facing the tourism industry, your organisation, and those of us developing the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2015.
I understand that during the conference you are going to hear speakers from all the involved parties, and I'm sure they will be able to provide you with further detail on the process, and how it might relate to you.
However, I would be happy to take this opportunity to spend some time answering your questions.
---------------------------------
Kia Ora.
Thank you for the invitation to speak to you today.
It is my pleasure to be here in Hamilton, to speak with you about your sector, and the tourism industry in general.
The theme of this conference is "Balancing Business and Body" and I think this a particularly relevant theme for an organisation of tourism operators to be addressing.
More so than many other industries, many people get into the tourism and accommodation sectors as much for the lifestyle it affords them, as for the financial rewards.
The beautiful locations many of you reside and work in, and the regular contact with a diverse range of people on a daily basis, are great reward.
Your businesses also provide the means by which New Zealanders seek to balance the stresses and commitments of their everyday life with relaxation and enjoyment.
Of course, the ultimate goal in any sector is to maintain a balanced lifestyle, while developing a growing business in a thriving industry. It is called sustainability. Some call it survival.
The Government's vision for tourism is of a sustainable high value, high performing sector that provides a world-class tourist experience. I envisage this future ensuring financial and economic prosperity for the tourism industry, and all of you here today.
Tourism Strategy
At your conference last year, I told you that work had begun on updating the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2010. A lot of work has gone on since then, and over the past six weeks, the draft was available to any and all interested parties for public discussion.
The time for feedback is now over, and the work of finalising the strategy has begun. When completed, I am confident that the Ministry of Tourism, Tourism New Zealand and the Tourism Industry Association will come up with a significant practical contribution to the future of our industry and all those participating in it.
I am here today, of course, because holiday parks are an important part of the industry, and this makes you a key partner in pursuing the goals for the future.
Holiday Parks
In the year to March 2007, caravan parks and camping grounds hosted over 6.1 million guest nights, which equates to 20% of New Zealand's total guest nights. This represents an increase from March 2006 of 65,000 guest nights (or 11.5%). Congratulations.
It is therefore vital to ensure that HAPNZ is engaged in the process of moving the New Zealand tourism industry into the next decade and beyond.
Tourism Strategy
To this end, I was pleased to note that HAPNZ contributed to the strategy development process, providing valuable support for a number of policy approaches, as well as very helpful comments on areas where we could look to improve, revise or be more specific in our approach.
Tourism and the economy
Tourism is a thriving and vital part of the New Zealand economy. In the year ended March 2007, just under two and a half million international visitors came to New Zealand, while domestically, New Zealanders took 14.7 million overnight trips.
Combined, domestic and international tourism contributed 9% of New Zealand's GDP, and tourism remains our nation's largest earner of foreign exchange.
It is important to note that the industry delivering these returns is primarily dominated by small and medium enterprises, much like the membership here today.
Of course, as well as providing us with positive input, the consultation process around the strategy has also served to highlight a range of challenges ahead.
I would like to run through these challenges.
Two areas of importance to both your sector, and the industry as a whole, are those of yield and seasonality.
Yield
First, yield. One of the main focuses of the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2015 is to increase yield. We need to grow the expenditure of visitors who come to New Zealand, as well as grow yield for individual businesses through the value they obtain from each visitor.
Obviously, the easiest way to increase yield is to simply increase prices.
However, if we do this, we also have to enhance quality. Value for tourists alone cannot be sacrificed in the pursuit of profit.
The additional value obtained from each visitor must be matched by added value for each visitor - with well-motivated, energetic and knowledgeable staff an important part of this equation.
I realise I'm preaching to the converted somewhat in discussing the importance of quality with you, but across the industry I'd like to see us lift our game, particularly with a better uptake of Qualmark. I understand 33 per cent of you are Qualmark accredited.
For instance, I hope that you'll all take up the challenge of becoming accredited under the Qualmark environmental weightings, which are expected to be up and running next summer.
Coupled with efforts to ensure consumer awareness of Qualmark and the relevance its assessments to operators, this will help develop environmental sustainability in our industry, and provide another indicator of quality for tourists planning their next holiday.
Seasonality
I was pleased to note in the comments HAPNZ provided on the draft NZTS 2015 that you are fully aware of the issues of yield and seasonality, and how they are linked.
By increasing numbers in the shoulder seasons we can promote growth in the industry without compromising the experiences of summer visitors with overcrowding.
To this end, we need to encourage people to travel to and around New Zealand outside the peak summer season, in October and November, and April and May, when the weather is usually still good and there are plenty of empty spaces available.
The recent changes to daylight savings hours will helps us with this, as well as initiatives like Tourism New Zealand's "What's On" marketing campaign in Australia.
This seeks to entice people to come here in the shoulder seasons and is already starting to pay dividends, with an additional 4769 Australian visitors between March and May this year. I've set George Hickton a target of 1 million Australian visitors and I'm sure he'll achieve that in the next couple of years.
There has also been the recent "Green and Gold" campaign to convince the Aussies that New Zealand is a fantastic destination to come to in autumn.
The promotion of events to attract people to regions they might not otherwise have visited at certain times of the year is another important way we can address the seasonal distribution of visitors.
Domestic Tourism
Of course, these issues are also closely connected to domestic tourism, and the emphasis we as a country place on it.
The draft strategy recognises that domestic travel is particularly important in the low season, and product development for the domestic market often provides a springboard for international growth opportunities.
I applaud the AA's campaign inviting New Zealanders to see more of our wonderful country.
I am pleased that the draft NZTS 2015 calls for the establishment of a working group to develop a specific domestic tourism strategy, and I would welcome your organisation's input in moving forward with this initiative.
Local Government
This brings me to another important issue in the draft strategy - that is, local government. Local government is a key partner and participant in the tourism sector.
In order to ensure tourism needs are taken into account when planning for the development of local events or infrastructure, we need to ensure tourism operators are involved in local and regional decision-making.
Local councils must be made aware of the importance of tourism to their economies. Many are, some are not.
To address this need, the NZTS 2015 will encourage tourism operators and organisations to get more involved in local debate, including the addition of tourism related policy in annual and district plans.
By working to achieve greater local government involvement by the industry, we can ensure that regions, all of which have tourism potential, can fully utilise that potential to provide both better quality services and off-season attractions, and contribute to yield and profitability for the whole industry.
Staffing Shortages
An issue that the tourism industry continues to grapple with is one of staff shortages.
There is a concern at the lack of quality staff available. This is particularly evident in resort areas, but is also a factor throughout the entire country.
It begs the obvious question: If you are just leaving school, why would you consider a career in tourism?
What are the wages and conditions like? What are the career prospects? What training is available? And, what can we as a country do to ensure we have sufficient staff who are motivated and smart?
These are the questions we must keep asking ourselves. If we are to have a sustainable high value, high performing sector that provides a world-class tourism experience we need to come up with the some of answers fairly quickly.
We are making progress. From the Labour-led Government's point of view, we have increased the number of tertiary tourism qualifications and apprenticeships.
And for low skilled job placement, is the visa fast-track system currently being utilised in Queenstown, which allows foreign visitors with a job offer to apply for a seasonal work visa while in New Zealand.
The Government has also moved to make working in New Zealand more attractive, to stem the tide of those leaving for Australia.
Lifting annual leave entitlements to four weeks and providing saving incentives through KiwiSaver match what is on offer across the Tasman and give people another couple of reasons either not to go in the first place, or to come back if they do go.
Regardless of the progress, however, staff recruitment and retention is an area we all must continue to focus on. I welcome all initiatives that will help us get to where we want to be - be they from the industry or at a national level.
Reserves Act 1977 and Freedom Camping
Issues of particular relevance to HAPNZ are holiday parks on DoC or local government reserve land, and freedom camping. I know HAPNZ is in regular contact with the Government on these issues, and I am sure that continued negotiation and engagement will provide solutions which benefit us all.
I meet reasonably regularly my colleague, Conservation Minister Chris Carter on topics such as concessions and the rules about reserve land, and with respect to freedom camping, the Waste Management Working Group is monitoring the ways in which individual councils handle that difficult issue.
For example, recent attempts in Kaikoura to crack down on freedom camping are being considered in order to see if there are lessons that can be passed on to other councils.
Information Technology
I am very aware that a challenge to some of you in achieving your business goals, particularly to address yield issues, is in your access to information technology. This is especially so in the rural areas where so many of you operate.
Wider access to broadband is essential for the tourism sector. In fact, fast, competitively-priced access to the internet is a matter of necessity for New Zealand's economic future.
A package of measures has recently been announced to address New Zealand's relatively poor broadband performance. This follows the telecommunications stock-take which was released in May last year.
I encourage you to look out for an upcoming discussion paper, due from the Ministry of Economic Development at the end of this month, about Telecom's Service Obligations and Rural Broadband.
Information gathered from the survey and discussion paper will feed into a Strategy for Rural Broadband that is due out before the end of the year.
You can be sure that I will be advocating for the needs of the tourism industry, in particular for operators in remote areas, as I know many of you are.
These are just some off the challenges and opportunities facing the tourism industry, your organisation, and those of us developing the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2015.
I understand that during the conference you are going to hear speakers from all the involved parties, and I'm sure they will be able to provide you with further detail on the process, and how it might relate to you.
However, I would be happy to take this opportunity to spend some time answering your questions.