Venu Menon
Wellington, July 16,2024
The tourism and hospitality sector is New Zealand’s second largest export earner.
Pre-pandemic, tourism accounted for 19.9% of exports and directly contributed 5.4% of GDP and 7.9% of employment, according to the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE).
Recovery to pre-Covid levels is underway, the government claims.
But tourism relies on data. The government recognises that the sector “requires access to reliable, timely, consistent and high-quality information so that everyone – ranging from people working in the sector to our communities and our manuhiri [visitor] – can make better informed decisions.”
Tourism Data Partnership Fund
With this aim in mind, the government is setting up a Tourism Data Partnership Fund (TDPF) which will provide up to $400,000 in grants for the generation of “new data and insights” for the sector.
The Fund is administered by the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy (IVL), which has an allocation of $5 million.
The TDPF will support efforts to create data sets to enable the tourism sector to improve productivity and/or reduce carbon emissions.
Projects eligible for funding will deliver “core data, fill data gaps, provide greater accessibility and use of data to enable better decision making.”
Funding will be available for one year of data collection with a further six months “for either design, implementation or finalisation.”
The TDPF is available to tourism sector industry bodies, such as the Backpacker Youth Adventure Tourism Association, Bed and Breakfast Association, Board of Airlines Representatives, Bus and Coach Association and the Cruise Association, among others.
The projects should support the goals and objectives of the Strategic Business Plan 2024-2025.
Strategic Business Plan 2024-2025
The plan revolves around the role of the Tourism Data Leadership Group (TDLG), which is tasked with making recommendations to the Minister for Tourism and Hospitality and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) on improving the tourism data system by providing a roadmap for the next two years.
TDLG co-chair Steve Armitage says it is imperative that data is used more “effectively and efficiently” and also “collaboratively.”
The TDLG has evolved a blueprint that recommends the “re-use of core data sets (for example, tourism flows and volumes) to tell us a variety of stories via MBIE’s Tourism Evidence and Insights Centre (TEIC).”
It also focuses on regenerative tourism – ensuring the tourism data system is “sustainably managed into the longer-term.”
The TDLG recommends that best practices be followed in relation to “data governance, ethics, privacy, and security.”
Optimising value
Tourism and Hospitality Minister Matt Doocey says investing in “foundational data gaps” will provide “consistent, reliable and trusted tourism data” that helps “grow the value of international tourism and hospitality, support regions to maximise the value of tourism and hospitality, make it easier to do business in the tourism and hospitality sector, and supporting the people who make up the tourism and hospitality workforce.”
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Wellington
