International visitors make New Zealand a better place for New Zealanders. Securing a long term sustainable future for our industry is more important now than ever. We have to protect and enhance what makes New Zealand a great place to live and a desirable place to visit, providing our communities and visitors with an excellent experience long into the future.
“The economic, social and environmental sustainability of our industry is intrinsically linked to New Zealand's future, and we all have to play a part. With visitors increasingly better informed and with higher expectations about what they want from every experience and product, the industry needs to sustainably evolve our offer while also leaving the world around us a better place than we found it.
The growth in visitor numbers is presenting challenges while also providing the opportunity and resources to dramatically upgrade the experience, design for reduced environmental impact and generate new sources of value. The Tourism Sustainability Commitment is an important way of setting industry goals to better manage some of those expectations and challenges, and ensuring all types of benefit are realised.
“Tourism NZ is focused on a portfolio of international markets and high-value segments to provide long-term sustainability and to better shape demand. Ensuring the industry can continue to meet or exceed the expectations of our visitors is key, as is ensuring host communities understand and evidence the value of tourism. Improving Qualmark to include evaluations that consider economic, environmental, social and safety sustainability practices is one way we are helping to raise the quality of tourism businesses.
"Marketing shoulder season travel, encouraging regional dispersal of visitors and working alongside industry to provide insights and expertise about what visitors want are also tangible ways we are contributing to a more sustainable future for tourism in New Zealand.”