PRESIDENT MARTIN HORGAN – TOURISM EXPORT COUNCIL CONFERENCE SPEECH 2015
Firstly I want to congratulate you all on what has been an excellent year of success for tourism in New Zealand.
We’ve had a blinder… and that success can, and is directly attributed to you all. Destination New Zealand has never been held in higher regard and that is a direct reflection of the work many of you have done offshore – and that all of you have done in New Zealand by providing awesome experiences for the almost 3 million (check if end July takes us over) or so visitors that choose to vacation or experience New Zealand over the last year.
I was fortunate enough to spend 10 days with a group of travel advisors travelling throughout New Zealand a few months ago and it was inspiring to experience New Zealand’s tourism offering through the eyes of first time visitors. We have a plethora of very high quality operators working in the tourism space in this country and we can all learn lessons from each other.
So as we look back over the last season and look ahead to the next, we have a lot to be grateful for. That said we are an ambitious industry and more so than ever, we all have high expectation of the 2015/16 season and beyond.
With growth often come challenges, and that’s also something we’re grappling with at the moment.
Seasonality has always been an issue for the Tourism Industry in New Zealand but with extraordinarily high demands from traditional leisure visitors in those peak months, this issue has been exasperated. We clearly need to push business (that could & can be moved) into those shoulder seasons – events, conferences, incentives and any other business that has some flexibility. Our growth will be restricted and limited if everybody tries to travel between November and February. Our company (as an example) did more than 20 times more business in February than in June – Many of you will be the same. I’d like (we’d all like) that to level out somewhat!
Wholesale availability was a battle for ITO’s over the last season and looks to be is worse again for the 2015/16 high season. We can’t grow unless we have the rooms, we know hotels need to make hay while the sun shines (as do ITO’s), but when we can’t purchase space in one or two locations in inhibits our ability to build complete New Zealand itineraries, and then if rooms are available through other sources – it undermines our relationship with our clients and jeopardises those contracts. We want more rooms from our hotel partners, and in return we will support your properties 365 days of the year, in good years and in bad years.
Tourism Infrastructure: The bottom line is we need more, and it can’t happen soon enough. Capacity limitations are a critically restricting factor at the moment and we need development and redevelopment, we need new projects, new hotels and upgraded stock. It’s exciting to see new hotels on the go and proposed in Auckland, but right now the demand is there for more, and throughout the country. There has to be an opportunity for tourism developers at the moment and I hope we see more exciting projects announced in the next year ahead. With the current tourism environment looking positive, we hope investors and the industry take confidence and embrace the the JFK quote of “the best time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining”.
Tourism Growth Partnership Funding: We are an energetic, innovative and creative industry and this has been put to the test by MBIE’s Tourism Growth Partnership Fund. This opportunity is the envy of many of our competitive set destinations. Jim Boult spoke at TRENZ and again invited Tourism businesses and entrepreneurs to apply for TGP Funding for original and pioneering ways of growing New Zealand Tourism. If you haven’t considered the opportunity that TGP funding currently presents for your business – you should. Through the MBIE TGP channel the Govt. is willing to invest in your business success, it genuinely is a valuable and unique opportunity should you have an original idea or concept that will add new value to the success of the New Zealand Visitor industry.
Travel Tax: It seems ironic after giving acknowledgement to the government for their funding initiatives that now we talk about the industry being blindsided in the recent budget with the announcement of a legislated travel border bio-security tax which takes effect 01 January 2016. There was no consultation with those expected to implement, and with our CATT – Coalition Against Travel Tax group. We strenuously oppose the tax. And why? Lack of research, border control is public good not consumer benefit, international visitors already pay $700 million on GST and none of it reclaimable (unlike many other competitive set countries), and it is the Primary Industries that are the actual beneficiaries of the tax – what is their contribution going to be? With cruise and inbound operators having pre-sold travel packages, there is no facility to collect extra from the consumers. The CATT group are hoping to have this delayed until 2017 and for an informed discussion on collection and implementation can be had.
Tourism driver safety was a hot topic this summer gone and justifiably so. Something I even got a taste of myself, as I expect many of you did also. It’s literally a life and death issue and as an industry something we need to be constantly working on. We are certainly making progress through the work that RVA, TIA and industry leadership groups set up to tackle the problem. But we can all do our part, ITO’s through advice, education and responsible planning and hotels and attractions by offering friendly face to face information, ‘where are going next? Can I help you? Remember to stay in that left lane! Be wary of a few tight corners after you leave here!’ and even by placing signage at the gates as clients drive away ‘ thanks for coming, drive safe, stay left and keep to the speed limit’ etc. We can all do something; think about what your business’s contribution should be and do it!
Christchurch rebuild. As a Cantabrian it’s hard to believe the Earthquake that reshaped our city was 4 and a half years ago. Christchurch is an awesome city and following on from Feb 2011, continues to re-establish itself again as more than just a tourism gateway. Whilst we’ve seen real progress in some area’s such as commercial development, the anchor products proclaimed by the Govt. & Council have been painfully slow and that inhibits both the city’s ability to attract visitors and to recover.
The Metro Sports Centre was to open in 2017, that’s now been pushed out to 2020. The Arts Centre to reopen in 2016 is something to look forward to, the footprint for The Performing Arts Precinct now behalf cut in half – not so much. Rugby Stadium – no date, Cathedral and Cathedral Square revitalisation – who knows? The Christchurch Convention Centre was to open in 2017, that’s now been pushed out to 2018 with Gerry Brownlee proclaiming recently that even a 2018 completion date is unlikely and that plans for the facility should be reconsidered in light of the Christchurch City Council’s recent decision to save the Town Hall! This is ludicrous and short-sighted, the two buildings serve different interests & needs and delaying the convention centre indefinitely will hurt the CBD’s recovery immensely. I understand we need to cut our coat to fit the cloth in Christchurch, but we’re passionate about our city as both somewhere to live and also a destination to send our visitors. If we want to see a recovery in the next decade – we need to stop talking and start doing. 4 and a ½ years has been long enough.
Selling the tourism sizzle story: Tourism is often under valued as an export sector by local and national government, Business NZ and media. Domestic and international tourism creates very significant regional spread and employment and we need to do a better marketing job of our own export sector to all key influencers and mainstream New Zealand so that they understand & value tourism’s contribution to the economy and value as a tourism career employer.
I want to say congratulations and thank you to both Tourism New Zealand and Air New Zealand. Tourism New Zealand’s on-going 100% Pure campaign deservedly continues to be revered world over. We’re very grateful for the exceptional work you do to promote our businesses and destination New Zealand. Congratulations to Tourism New Zealand for winning the best National Tourism Award at Virtuoso last week, and to Air New Zealand for being a deserved finalist.
In the last 12 months Air New Zealand has announced new direct services to both Houston and Buenos Aires. These additions to the Air New Zealand network will have massive implications for us all from December 2015. A successful, profitable, engaged and forward thinking national carrier is the backbone to any destinations tourism success and we couldn’t do much better, or be prouder of Air New Zealand.
Environmental commitment – at the 2012 conference we received a mandate from members to do more as an industry in trying to protect our best asset, the environment. Our recent survey has 90% of members continuing to support this and yesterday we had a successful ‘green volunteer’ day Orokonui Eco-Sanctuary. 30 members came in early to participate in weeding & planting in pretty cold conditions (thanks team) and we are pleased to announce that from your registration fees, we will donate $1000 to Orokonui to enable them to continue to do their good work.
Inbound tour operators and outdoor attraction & activity operators pay concession fees to DOC, and many of you donate time & money to significant projects around the country. We as an organisation would also like to continue’ walking the talk’ with the Board committing $10,000 for the coming year to a specific environmental project. The details are still to be worked through re what the project will be, but we welcome your ideas and thoughts to what this might go towards.
There’s lots of good news out there for the Tourism Industry right now, we should all be proud of our achievements as a cohesive industry. Here’s to another great conference!