Policy Positions — Industry Issues

Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA) released its industry strategy Tourism 2050 - a Blueprint for Impact on 7 November 2023 at Tourism Summit Aotearoa. 

Tourism 2050 sets out the vision for the industry by 2050 which is ‘Enriching Aotearoa New Zealand Through a Flourishing Tourism Ecosystem’ supported by 10 key Actions that create momentum towards achieving the vision and the key targets. 

Tourism 2050 was developed by TIA with wide industry support and specialist strategy input from PwC. 

The central premise of Tourism 2050 is ‘balanced growth’ where tourism is a flourishing and growing industry that contributes widely to Aotearoa New Zealand’s people, place and culture. 

Tourism 2050 is a framework for identifying and advancing critical issues to be acted on by industry, government and local government. 

TIA is undertaking a process to refresh Tourism 2050 to update the 10 key Actions within the current operating context and in light of progress achieved. To be released mid-2026. 

Tourism 2050 identifies that the underlying design of the tourism system is informally constructed, without clear definition or mandate of roles and responsibilities across the industry. 

As a result, industry struggles to operate and develop as well as it needs to. Earlier work, including the Tourism Futures Taskforce and Regional Tourism New Zealand’s Project TŌNUI, have independently arrived at the same conclusion. 

Tourism 2050 identifies far-reaching gains to be achieved from having a well organised tourism industry with well-defined and mandated structures set out and enabled. 

Action 1 of Tourism 2050 is to Design Tourism Settings for 2050. 

Tourism 2050 calls for a National Policy Statement or similar vehicle, and this remains an important outcome to ensure a cohesive policy framework for tourism to enable it to grow and develop. 

This Action and its related funding action are currently being advanced by Government, with TIA and other industry participants closely involved and contributing as and when appropriate.  

TIA’s position is that there is value in exploring new ways to actively manage and develop Aotearoa New Zealand as a visitor destination.  

TIA has identified the gap our ability to actively manage and develop Destination New Zealand that could be addressed by an appropriate national tourism authority.  

Regions each have their own Destination Management Plans, but these are not well connected across regions, nor aggregated into a national plan, and then there is no ability to action with a national overview.  

International examples relevant to New Zealand include: 

Tourism 2050 - Action 2

Tourism 2050 identifies that the tourism system is starved of the funding resources it needs to operate and develop as it should. This applies to both new investments and existing assets that are depreciating and which require investment to lift quality and capacity in line with industry development and growth pathways.    

Without appropriate funding, the ability of tourism to advance critical issues and achieve balanced growth will be constrained.  

In addition to the provision of funding, it is equally important that there are appropriate governance and distribution arrangements for these funds. TIA considers that industry must have a voice to ensure funds are directed to the most critical areas.  

Funding is particularly needed to support local government and industry functions, including tourism-related infrastructure, facilities, amenity areas, product development, research and data, implementation of destination management plans, industry capability, sustainability, and others. 

Action 2 of Tourism 2050 is Address Industry Funding, promoting the need to address the clear industry funding deficit for the long term. 

TIA is pursuing this Action in its work with Government, industry and other stakeholders, including through the Industry Funding Group convened by TIA.   

TIA advocates for a holistic view of the overall costs paid by visitors through the various charges they face. Visitors have recently faced substantial government cost increases, including IVL, Visa charges and several other user-pays fee increases. These overall costs must be considered in the context of the cumulative impact on visitors, and the downstream impacts on both industry and national interests. 

The IVL is currently generating around NZ$190 million annually that, if used as intended, can play a vital role in ensuring international visitors contribute to the infrastructure and natural environment they use while in New Zealand. 

The information provided to visitors when they pay the IVL states: ‘The IVL is your contribution to maintaining the facilities and natural environment you will use and enjoy during your stay.’ 

TIA’s position on the IVL: 

TIA is open to exploring new funding mechanisms to address identified structural industry funding constraints, potentially a modern national tourism levy on accommodation usage across the country, referred to as a bed-tax. TIA is supportive of deep industry engagement to explore options, assess costs and benefits, and determine ways to ensure funds raised will be used in line with its purpose.      

The industry is up for the discussion and is keen to work with Government on solving the problem of ensuring local councils and communities can invest in the tourism-related infrastructure they need. 

The industry views solving funding as one of its top ten priorities in Tourism 2050 - A Blueprint for Impact. 

Tourism 2050 identifies that any new funding solutions must adhere to principles including: 

Tourism makes a vital contribution to our economy, encourages social connectivity internationally and domestically, and showcases our whenua, our cultural diversity and timeless experiences. Tourism fosters pride and is a catalyst for regional prosperity. 

Tourism has a broad impact right across the economy and our communities. 

Key data: (Tourism Satellite Account, Stats NZ, YE March 2025):  

TIA considers tourism to be a strongly positive industry for Aotearoa New Zealand, to both the economy and more broadly. 

With the economic benefits of tourism clearly established, other equally important attributes of tourism are not well quantified or recognised. 

These include the ability to showcase culture, opportunities for entrepreneurship, ability to contribute to the well-being of nature, the role it plays in healthy vibrant communities, the increased connectivity tourism enables with internally and with the world.   

As such, TIA supports tourism that delivers wide-ranging benefits to communities, businesses and nature. Generating economic growth, and at the same time ensuring we achieve the wider set of desired outcomes.  

Tourism 2050 defines this as ‘balanced growth’ where tourism grows on a well-managed basis with visitors contributing to the wider outcomes that we are seeking.

In a globally competitive tourism industry, Aotearoa New Zealand is a niche player and must position itself as a destination that provides quality experiences that meet and exceed the expectations of our visitors. 

The tourism operating environment is always changing, requiring agile industry responses, for instance, to geopolitical factors, what our markets want and expect; how the international tourism system is operating, and increasingly changing technologies.  

Through being innovative and adaptive to these changes, Aotearoa New Zealand is well placed to build on our competitive advantage in tourism as a quality destination competing for valued visitors from origin markets from around the world. 

TIA’s position is that Tourism New Zealand must be funded to the level needed to deliver market cut-through to build demand to visit New Zealand.

Tourism 2050 - Action 8

TIA leads the Tourism Sustainability Commitment (TSC) to support tourism businesses to operate on a sustainable basis across an economic, community, visitor and environment framework. 

TSC is a bottom-up approach to driving sustainability action, and it has received such strong support from across the industry that TIA has made it a standard part of TIA membership. Over 2,000 tourism operators have signed up to the TSC, and 609 completed the 2025 annual declaration. 

TIA is committed to increasing the impact of the TSC. It operates a successful programme that provides tailored support to operators within regional or sector groups and is exploring how it can scale up the TSC so it can do more. 

Action 8 in Tourism 2050 is Build Sustainability Capability across the tourism industry and specifically to establish a programme to lift the sustainability capability of tourism businesses. 

TIA has launched the Akiaki – Advancing Tourism programme to lift the sustainability capability of tourism operators. Akiaki is an online learning programme, to help operators to understand the principles of sustainable tourism and how they can take practical steps within their own business.  

The term ‘regenerative’ has gained currency over recent years and suggests a step beyond ‘sustainability’. TIA considers both valid and supports each being used in the right context. TIA’s interpretation of sustainability is broad and encompasses regenerative principles in practice.

TIA embraces the integration of Te Ao Māori (Māori worldview) in tourism, celebrating the unique aspect of destination Aotearoa New Zealand and ensuring Māori are integral to, and benefit from, a vibrant tourism industry. 

Tourism 2050 - Action 4 

Te Whakarae Māori aims to integrate kaupapa Māori (Māori approach) and Mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) into the tourism industry. It sets out the challenge to the industry to learn about and embrace Māori culture, including te reo Māori and tikanga to elevate the role of Māori, iwi and hapū voices within the tourism industry. TIA is promoting understanding of Te Whakarae Māori across the industry. 

TIA has established a project to advance Te Whakarae Māori, with a provider appointed to undertake this work over the period to 2028.  

The project will enable tourism operators to understand and appropriately reflect elements of Māori culture within their businesses, while meeting the concerns of Māori in terms of how their culture, knowledge and language is presented to visitors. Reciprocity is a key concept underpinning this mahi.  

This project is being advanced with strategic support and informed guidance from New Zealand Māori Tourism. 

Related to Te Whakarae Māori, TIA has created a course within the Akiaki programme to support non-Māori tourism operators to embrace and share Māori values appropriately. 

TIA has its own tikanga commitment and actively works to lift its cultural competency and how it lives the values of Kaitiakitanga, Manaakitanga and Whanaungatanga in all its activities.

Tourism 2050 - Action 9

TIA sees the tourism workforce as an industry fundamental that we need to get right. Tourism is essentially a people industry meaning our staff are the interface to our visitors and are essential to the quality of the visitor experience. 

Total tourism employment is 327,888 people employed, or 11.4% of total employment in New Zealand.   

Tourism contains a wide spectrum of jobs and occupations, spread right around the country. The workforce is made up of New Zealanders and overseas workers, including both migrants and working holiday travellers that can support the industry over the summer peak and have the dual benefit of also being visitors. 

TIA encourages tourism businesses to be ‘Employers of Choice’ (TSC Commitment 7). 

Action 9 in Tourism 2050 is Grow the Tourism Workforce. 

This specifies that businesses focus on all aspects of being good employers so they can readily attract the workforce they need.  

TIA supports a thriving tourism education sector – from schools, to training, to university education at all levels.  

TIA specifically recognises the critical importance of vocational education and training systems for tourism given that many of the jobs in the industry are best learned on the job or with targeted training programmes. 

To deliver workforce the tourism industry needs, TIA’s position includes tourism to be:  

Tourism 2050 - Action 9

TIA supports the development of the Kiwi tourism workforce while recognising the essential role of overseas workers where there are skill shortages and where there are few New Zealanders ready and available for the work required.  

The seasonal nature of tourism and the remote places where tourism can take place means that some overseas workers are needed. 

TIA advocates for immigration settings that reflect the structural characteristics of the tourism industry and key contextual factors such as specialist skill shortages, seasonal patterns and the location of the jobs. 

TIA:  

TIA is well positioned to raise concerns and to promote changes to immigration settings with the appropriate authorities. 

A number of Aotearoa New Zealand’s important visitor markets are from countries that require visitor visas, most notably China and India. 

TIA supports visa policy settings that enable tourism activity and we actively advocate for the policies and operations that enable visitation from these markets.  

TIA has raised concerns about the high costs of visas to New Zealand and that visa processing be efficient, with consistently short turnaround times in line with those of competitor markets. Both price and timeliness factors impact on visitor demand. 

Such advocacy has contributed to in-market support in China and India, and the government is undertaking a Visa Waiver Trial for Chinese nationals with an Australian Visa. Inbound arrivals data from China since late 2025 and into 2026 suggests that this change is having a positive impact. TIA supports a review of visa options and pricing, including this initiative, to enable the growth of China and India arrivals to support Tourism 2050 targets.  

TIA notes improvements to Visa processing times and advocates for continued focus on this by Immigration New Zealand. 

Tourism 2050 - Action 7

TIA supports the longstanding industry priority to reduce its carbon emissions to enable tourism to become a net carbon zero industry by 2050.  

Action 7 in Tourism 2050, Achieve Net Carbon Zero, sets the path for reducing and then eliminating tourism carbon emissions. Targets have been set for aviation carbon emissions to be net zero by 2050 and for non-aviation tourism emissions to be 30% below the 2019 level by 2030. 

Key to making progress will be to get all tourism operators acting to measure and then reduce their carbon emissions, with support across the tourism system and visitors themselves.    

TIA advocates for policies and programmes of government and industry that support and enable the actions by operators, including across the aviation, cruise, land transport, activities, and other tourism sectors.   

Results from the TSC Annual Declaration for 2025 indicate that increasing numbers of tourism operators are measuring their carbon emissions while at the same time fewer are getting formalised zero-carbon certification. 

TIA advances this Action by contributing to workstreams that form part of wider efforts to reduce emissions that support progress towards achieving our national 2050 emission targets. 

Tourism 2050 - Action 7

TIA supports establishing the necessary policy and regulatory settings needed to facilitate the tourism industry’s transition from high carbon emission energy sources. 

This includes the supply of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) in Aotearoa New Zealand.  As evidenced overseas, biofuels and other alternative fuels like SAF, supports economic growth, energy resilience, national security, regional development, and attracting of foreign investment. 

TIA would like to see the government prioritise the development of SAF policy and notes many other jurisdictions are ahead of New Zealand. New Zealand may risk access to supply, as well as foregoing the broader and adjacent benefits SAF supports.  

TIA supports processes to establish the supply of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) in Aotearoa New Zealand as the only option currently available for decarbonising long-haul aviation. 

TIA supports steps taken by Government and Air New Zealand to put in place the supply of SAF and we have advocated for the SAF Mandate and support the SAF Consortium that has developed a pathway to standing up a SAF industry in Aotearoa New Zealand.  

TIA recognises the work of the global cruise industry to develop non-carbon propulsion technologies and advocates for these new generation vessels to be deployed to Aotearoa New Zealand when those fuels are available in New Zealand and at scale. 

For the land transport system, TIA supports the development of the infrastructure needed to enable tourism industry transition to sustainable fuels. This includes development of a national electric vehicle (EV) charging network, and other options that may emerge as viable options, such as hydrogen and biofuels.  

TIA strongly supports ongoing Government funding for Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) to market Aotearoa New Zealand internationally as a high-quality visitor destination. Globally, demand stimulation from effective destination marketing is a proven tool for growing and shaping tourism. 

Achieving the industry’s goal for tourism’s total expenditure to reach $55 billion by 2030 will require effective international destination marketing that only TNZ can provide.  

TNZ’s efforts generate a ‘halo effect’ that extends beyond tourism, elevating New Zealand’s global profile and reputation. This impact supports other sectors by driving international demand for our export products such as wine, food, and many more, both in New Zealand and as visitors return home.  

TIA advocates for:  

Results achieved over the last 12 month provides evidence of the positive economic return from TNZ’s activities and overall ROI that it generates for New Zealand. This evidence is key to justifying extra investment in TNZ.   

The nature of the competitive international destination marketing environment is changing rapidly with new methods, technologies, data and digital tools. This results in a complex and fragmented digital environment that requires a deliberate response by TNZ to ensure it retains its place at the forefront of innovation.      

TNZ has an essential role in shaping the nature of demand with the objective of ensuring we attract visitors that contribute positively to Aotearoa New Zealand. In this, TIA supports TNZ’s strategy to rebalance peak and off-peak tourism demand to enable better use of New Zealand’s tourism assets and workforce. 

Tourism 2050 - Action 6

Tourism must have a positive relationship with nature – our lands, waters, air, habitats, and biodiversity. Nature is firmly at the heart of our tourism offering, both for international visitors and for Kiwis exploring their own country. Equally, connecting people with our natural heritage is central to successful conservation outcomes. 

TIA supports actions and settings for the industry that serve to protect and restore the natural capital of Aotearoa New Zealand. This is fundamental to the essence of our country as a visitor destination where tourism can and must be an agent for good. 

Action 6 in Tourism 2050 is Champion Predator Free and Biodiversity. 

This Action recognises that tourism is uniquely placed to make a major contribution to our national efforts to restore our environment.  

Nature is such an important part of our tourism offering and with many tourism businesses already working to protect and restore the places in which they operate, this Action requires a whole-of-industry effort. All tourism businesses can play their part in the ways that suit them best. 

Aligning with Aotearoa New Zealand’s Predator Free 2050 Goal provides a wide range of initiatives that tourism can engage with, as an industry and as individual operators. 

TIA’s TSC Commitment 10, Restoring Nature, is about contributing to protecting and enhancing Aotearoa New Zealand's environment. TIA’s 2025 Annual Declaration for the TSC found that 68.7% of TSC members are supporting pest reduction on their own land or supporting other organisations to do this. 

TIA also advocates for actions that position tourism as an agent for good for nature, including when engaging with key conservation initiatives including Department of Conservation (DOC) processes such as examining the future visitor networks, and management of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, the Milford Opportunities Project, and others. 

Tourism 2050 - Action 7

TIA values its positive relationship with the Department of Conservation but recognises the limitations of the current legislative and planning structures for managing the conservation estate.  

Given the nature of the New Zealand tourism industry, our natural assets are integral to who we are as a destination, making it important that we are excellent at conserving and restoring nature, while enabling access to both international and domestic visitors.     

As identified in Tourism 2050, the legislative framework under which DOC operates is not fit for purpose. Tourism can contribute to strong conservation gains, but the current system consistently works against this desired alignment. 

DOC is also facing budget pressures requiring it to consider the nature and size of its visitor network, including its network of tracks, huts and other facilities.   

TIA supports half of the IVL being allocated for conservation, including for both visitor services and conservation. TIA also supports other initiatives to increase DOC revenues from the like of paid parking and potentially access charging - so long as these consider the wider context, including the overall costs faced by visitors and that funds raised should be spent at or near where they were raised.  

In line with the Government’s tourism growth agenda, TIA advocates for increased funding for DOC to ensure it can scale its visitor-related activities in line with increased demand.  

Action 7 of Tourism 2050 is Transform Tourism and Conservation. 

This Action has two parts. Firstly, to establish how to optimise the current settings for tourism and conservation for the best outcomes, and secondly, to support the modernisation of the complex conservation legislation that DOC works to. In both areas, TIA considers that there are substantial benefits to be gained. 

TIA supports Government steps to modernise conservation land management to ensure Aotearoa New Zealand has a fit-for-purpose conservation system. TIA is highly engaged in this work, and we are particularly interested in improvements to the concession system.  

Government is expected to introduce legislation in 2026 that will set out important changes to the conservation settings. TIA regards this as a rare and welcomed opportunity to ensure the legislative framework to support and enable positive outcomes for both tourism and conservation. 

TIA is also participating in the current review of the Wildlife Act 1953. 

TIA considers that tourism takes place in the backyards of New Zealanders, making it important that the relationship between the tourism industry, visitors and communities works well. 

Tourism delivers significant benefits to the communities in which it operates, including jobs, business opportunities, community vibrancy, better transport links, more and better amenities, amongst others. On the other hand, communities are sensitive to overcrowding, unsafe driving and poor behaviour, and these areas need to be managed. 

TIA partners with TNZ and DOC on the Views on Tourism: New Zealand survey which tracks community views on tourism over time and assesses community sentiment towards tourism and how they see the benefits and the areas to be improved. This survey finds high level of agreement that ‘Tourism is Good for New Zealand’ (95%).  

The Tiaki Promise also has an important role to play in helping to ensure that visitors are good visitors as they travel around our country. 

Regionally based Destination Management Plans have been prepared to reflect community views and aspirations. For TIA, implementing these plans is important for ongoing support and engagement.  

Delivering events of all types is a proven way to stimulate travel to places and at times of the year when demand can be low.  

In this, events are the most powerful lever for central and local government, and industry for shifting demand patterns and boosting economic activity. 

Government works to attract events through its Major Events and Tourism Investment Package that are designed to secure high-impact large-scale events, boost regional events and to improve tourism and events-related infrastructure.    

The business events sector has been significantly boosted in recent years with the opening of three new purpose-built conference centres (Te Pae in Christchurch, Tākina in Wellington and the New Zealand International Conference Centre in Auckland). These facilities are generating considerable high value tourism activity and will do so for decades to come.  

TIA welcomes funding from the Tourism Industry Data Partnership Fund to support Business Events Industry Aotearoa to build a data system for measuring and reporting the contribution of businesses events, including economic, employment and supply-chain outcomes. 

Who we are as New Zealanders is an essential part of who we are as a visitor destination.

Culture and heritage has many forms: our indigenous Māori culture and all the other cultures that now make up Aotearoa New Zealand, whether from the Pacific islands, European cultures, from across Asia, and many other places. Each culture adds to the fabric of who we are as a country and destination. 

The unique history of Aotearoa New Zealand forms the stories of our place that enriches the experiences of our domestic and international visitors. As set out earlier, TIA is undertaking a project, Te Whakarae Māori, to strengthen this aspect of the tourism industry.      

Cultural arts are an important part of our national identity and provide a reason to travel, whether through events such as Matatini cultural festival, World of Wearable Arts, Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts, and many others. 

TIA supports the vibrancy and reasons to travel that all events stimulate, whether business, sporting, culture and heritage, and any others. In this, we also value the contribution our domestic and international visitors make to the viability of many of our cultural and heritage activities and assets.

The value of museums and galleries to the country is significant in terms of our heritage, our communities and our economy. Museums and galleries care for, preserve, and showcase 45 million artifacts, and they inform and entertain millions of visitors every year.   

Museums and galleries are facing a funding crisis with rising costs, and uncertain funding sources. For instance, most are funded through a mixture of local government funding, sponsorship, sales through retail, cafes, venue hire and entrance fees. Pressured local government funding is making this situation worse and there is real risk of closures across the sector.  

TIA recognises that such funding issues faced by the museums and galleries sector are symptomatic of the funding deficits across many parts of tourism, as set out in Tourism 2050. 

TIA is a founding partner of Tiaki – Care for New Zealand. We believe that Tiaki has enormous scope for changing the way we look after Aotearoa New Zealand, with Māori values providing a way of providing for care of place, people and mahuhiri. 

Tiaki is a commitment to care for Aotearoa New Zealand, now and for future generations. 

Tourism operators are encouraged to use Tiaki to engage with customers about how to be great visitors within Aotearoa New Zealand (TSC Commitment 6). 

Action 10 in Tourism 2050 is Embed Tiaki, which seeks to get all businesses utilising Tiaki within their operations and with their visitors and communities to promote the importance of showing care and guardianship for our people, place and culture. 

This extends to how operators themselves demonstrate their support for the principles of kaitiakitanga. 

The Tiaki partners have an ongoing programme to advance Tiaki, with tailored assets for operators to use. Ongoing development will continue in recognition of the role this plays in shaping visitor understandings and behaviour, and of the industry itself.

Regional tourism is the heart of tourism in New Zealand.

Local government and their regional tourism organisation (RTO) or economic development structures have a critical role to play in facilitating and promoting tourism activity in regions and places around the country. Tourism happens at place, therefore local government is a critical partner and enabler of tourism. 

TIA considers that regional tourism activities funded by local government are facing serious challenges from several central government reforms. These include: 

Together, these changes will markedly shift the way local government tourism functions will be undertaken as constrained resources are applied to core functions.    

Overall, TIA recognises that the roles played by local government in tourism are important for destination management and promotion, and for the ability of destinations to evolve and develop in line with industry, visitor and community needs.  

TIA is also open to new ways to organise regional tourism functions, but we do so from the position that new approaches must be able to meet the needs of industry and communities.    

TIA sees the local government funding constraints as a major part of the overall funding deficit of the tourism industry, as set out in the Sustainable Industry Funding section, meaning that any funding solution will need to act to address the funding requirements of local government and destination management. 

TIA has long-standing interest in these regional tourism functions and regularly submits on councils’ Long-term Plans and as matters arise. TIA will continue to do this, even as other discussions on the nature of these functions are advanced.  

TIA supported the development of Destination Management Plans (DMPs) for all tourism regions in Aotearoa New Zealand, and we now support their implementation.  

Well-grounded plans are key to shaping the nature and quality of regional tourism. And, from a national perspective, the overall outcome is for unique but collectively cohesive destination management plans that: capture community wishes; identify, capitalise upon and protect a destination’s assets and characteristics; and allow for investment needs to be well signalled and planned for. 

The challenge remains around how the DMPs will be implemented, and TIA notes that little has been achieved given the lack of funds and uncertainty around local government tourism functions.   

TIA favours a substantive response to lifting New Zealand’s overall destination management capability, recognising the need for a systematic response, as opposed to the current ad hoc approach where destination management is vested with local government without any mandate or resourcing.     

TIA considers that implementation of DMPs, nationally and regionally, is a major part of the overall funding requirements of the tourism industry. 

Tourism 2050 - Action 3 

With tourism having a high reliance on a skilled workforce performing many roles right around the country and often on a seasonal basis, it is important that these workers have appropriate accommodation options. 

In destinations lacking available accommodation at affordable prices, many interventions are used, including employer and local government-provided accommodation. Part of any new funding mechanism could be used to support worker accommodation initiatives.  

TIA supports an increased consideration of workforce accommodation requirements in business and destination operations and growth, ideally as part of a long-term destination plan that includes a workforce component.