High kiwi dollar trims spending by tourists
A report in NZ’s The Press says that the high New Zealand dollar is having little impact on the number of tourists visiting the country, but they are spending less once they get there.
A report for the Tourism Ministry by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research has found that a 1% increase in the value of the kiwi dollar reduced the number of visitors by 0.02% and cut expenditure per visitor by 0.8%.
Destination Queenstown CEO David Kennedy said visitors did not have as much discretionary money as they used to, and operators had noticed people were limiting the number of their activities.
“It makes for a more challenging environment, but it’s something we have no control over, so there’s no point in worrying about it,” he said.
Tourism Industry Association CEO Fiona Luhrs said one of the industry’s targets was to increase the amount of money visitors spent, but every time the dollar went up, that job was made harder.
“There’s a real push to focus not on the number of people that come here, but the amount of money they spend while they’re here,” she said.
New Zealand had 2.2 million international visitors aged 15 and over in the year to last March.
They spent $6.3 billion, or $2829 each, a 1% decline compared with the previous year.
Whale Watch Kaikoura Operations Manager Kauahi Ngaporasaid the rising dollar had yet to hit visitor numbers, which were at record levels, but he was worried about the repercussions if the dollar remained high.
The company had had its busiest year, with nearly 100,000 visitors, about 5,000 more than the previous year.
Tourism Ministry Research Manager Bruce Bassett said the research showed the tourism sector was resilient to, but not unaffected by, exchange rate movements.
Tourism Minister Damien O’Connor said that while many export industries were feeling the heat from the rising dollar, this finding was heartening for the tourism industry.
The report also found the high dollar would have an effect on domestic tourism because when the dollar was high, New Zealanders travelled overseas more often.
Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism Marketing General Manager Chris Griffin said the high dollar enabled the organisation to do more marketing overseas.
“At this time of year, we do a lot of marketing offshore, so our dollar goes further,” he said.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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