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	One Million Australians can't be wrong
	By TIM COSSAR - 20 July 2009

There’s been a lot of debate in our industry over the past year about the need for more investment in New Zealand’s international tourism marketing.

An investment in tourism marketing helps to encourage more visitors to come to New Zealand and encourages those visitors to stay longer.

Prime Minister John Key’s decision to boost marketing in Australia by $2.5 million in March was welcomed across our industry and ski operators along with a host of other tourism businesses are now reaping the benefits.

Tourism New Zealand has seen increased awareness of New Zealand in Australia in recent months and highly competitive airfares, good seat capacity, and a favourable exchange rate are all working in our favour.

In tough economic times the New Zealand market is still very accessible to Australians wanting to holiday, and it’s great that we have recognised this and taken advantage of it.

In May alone, Australian visitor numbers rose by 15.8% (up 9,210 visitors compared to May 2008).[1]

If the good ski season continues and we get similar numbers across the next four months, we could expect an extra 36,000 more Australians to come to New Zealand for the winter season compared to 2008. With an average visitor spend of $1,800 for visitor trip[2] that could bring in about $64 million in revenue.

You don’t have to be Einstein to work out that that’s a 25 to 1 return on the Government’s $2.5 million investment – and to wonder what further returns could be achieved if similar, relatively low level funding were provided for New Zealand’s other key tourism markets.

The one millionth Australian visitor is a major milestone for the New Zealand tourism industry and a great achievement given the challenges being faced at the moment. Tourism New Zealand and Air New Zealand who also fronted up with $2.5 million in support for the Australian campaign deserve recognition for a job well done. 

As highlighted in our industry’s recent Tourism Industry Election Manifesto, investments like this demonstrate time and again that tourism is a net revenue generator, not a cost, to central government. Tourism doesn’t compete with other government portfolios for funding; it helps pay for them.

With figures like these, it’s also obvious that increased investment in tourism marketing could bring some valuable new money into the New Zealand economy and help to provide some reprieve for New Zealand’s regional labour markets in the current recession.

There’s an old saying – if you want to make an omelet, then you have to break some eggs.  John Key has shown that he’s a very enthusiastic new Tourism Minister with several tourism related investments announced in recent months and he’s said he’s keen to work with industry on more joint marketing promotions.

Let’s hope his team is also monitoring these figures and continuing to look at international tourism marketing as one of the key export industry solutions to help keep New Zealand workers in jobs and get New Zealand’s economy back on track.           

Tim Cossar
Chief Executive
TIA