NZ must prove sustainability
An NZPA report says that New Zealand’s tourism industry, and the country as a whole, need to go the extra mile to prove sustainability credentials, according to Prime Minister Helen Clark.
She made the comment at the launch of the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2015 in Parliament today.
The vision for the industry was for it to be valued as the leading contributor to a sustainable economy, Miss Clark said.
“To achieve that, the strategy envisages tourism being the first and most visible sector to meet, or exceed, new environmental standards and take up new environmental initiatives.
“What this strategy fully takes on board is that without a commitment to sustainability, tourism in New Zealand will not prosper,” she said.
But by committing to sustainability, tourism could plan for a strong future because the high value visitors this country sought to attract were increasingly conscious of their environmental footprint.
For many of those visitors this country was a long haul destination, Miss Clark said.
“On average for international visitors, their flight to and from New Zealand accounts for 90 per cent of the carbon emissions generated by their visit.
“We don’t want to be ruled out of consideration as a destination because it is seen as unsustainable to be here at all,” she said.
“Being clean and green and 100 per cent pure is priceless positioning and we must keep it.”
The strategy is a joint government-industry initiative, which updates the first national strategy released in 2001. It sets new targets to help measure progress.
One goal is to increase the number of international travellers who rate their overall experience of this country as eight or more on a 10-point scale.
Others are to increase the average amount visitors spend each night from $130 to $160, and to increase the number of visitors who arrive in the shoulder season of March, April, September and October.
Tourism Industry Association chairman Norm Thompson said the strategy was for the whole country.
A “whole-of-New Zealand approach” would be needed to achieve the protection and enhancement of this country’s environment envisaged in the strategy, he said.
“We must deliver in a credible way on the 100 per cent Pure promise that we use when marketing New Zealand offshore.
A Report by The Mole from The Dominion Post
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