The government is continuing to strengthen its partnerships with the tourism sector to ensure a sustainable future for tourism in New Zealand, Tourism Minister Mark Burton said.

In an announcement today, Mark Burton outlined details of a $0.787 million increase to the Ministry of Tourism’s baseline for 2003/04 through to 2006/07. This funding has been provided to integrate and enhance the availability of relevant industry information.

“Understanding the trends and dynamics of New Zealand’s tourism sector is essential to quality decision-making. Such an understanding is dependent upon accurate, timely, and high-quality information and advice that is easily accessible by all industry stakeholders,” said Mark Burton.

“The New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2010 made very clear recommendations about the importance of consolidating this key information under the management of one organisation, as well as outlining the enhancements necessary to meet the needs of the industry.

“The Ministry has already acted decisively in this area, developing and launching the TRCNZ website (www.trcnz.govt.nz) which offers the full range of tourism sector research data available on line, in one centralised location and in one format. This has greatly increased data accessibility for the entire sector. This new funding will provide the Ministry with the additional resources it needs to maintain and develop the core tourism data sets.”

Specifically, the funding will enable:

·improved integration of disparate data sets

·further development of the TRCNZ website
·improvements to selected surveys which contribute to the core data set
·new applied research in tourism
·enhanced dissemination of research findings to the industry as a whole.

Mark Burton also announced an additional $1.4 million over the next four years, to enhance the policy advice provided to the sector.

“The increasing importance of tourism’s economic contribution has led to increased expectations for high quality policy advice, both from the industry and other government departments.

“Key areas include long-term issues of sustainability, such as infrastructure provision, environmental care and protection, the involvement of Maori in tourism, tourism’s place in regional economic development, the development of cultural tourism, and co-ordination between local and regional tourism work and national level initiatives.
“But the Ministry also requires the capacity to advise on short-term issues that have the potential to impact on the sector. In recent months, the Ministry has provided significant levels of policy advice to both Ministers and the industry on such matters as SARS and the proposed Air NZ/Qantas merger. Events such as these will continue to need to be addressed from a tourism perspective.
“Both of these funding increases will ensure that the Ministry remains well-resourced and continues to contribute the kind of quality information necessary to inform the long-term, sustainable future of tourism in New Zealand.
“Next week, I will be making a significant and specific announcement about a major international tourism marketing initiative.”

For more budget information, visit www.beehive.govt.nz/budget/home.cfm.