MBIE

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is seeking input from businesses in the tourism sector about how they view environmental sustainability.

Can more employee sharing enhance New Zealand’s tourism workforce?

International visitor spend is the country’s third highest export for the quarter, says MBIE.

Almost 20k of the visas were approved before the borders shut and allowing them in could help alleviate worker shortages.

Heather Kirkham has been appointed to the role of general manager of tourism at MBIE.

Regional tourism organisation areas in the wider Otago region continued to put in a better performance for domestic spending in November 2021 versus the same month a year earlier.

The group will consist of a maximum of nine core members and two independent co-chairs.

MBIE is calling on a wide range of applicants to join a Tourism Data Co-governance Group to boost the quality of tourism data and insights.

How tourism businesses operate under the traffic light settings in the Covid-19 Protection Framework depends on the specific industry.

The Events Transition Support Scheme will cover 90% of unrecoverable costs for paid, ticketed events.

MBIE is oversimplifying the risks around adventure tourism in its proposed changes to adventure regulations, says TIA.

Almost all regional tourism organisation areas around the country saw weaker monthly domestic spending in September 2021 than a year.

Kānoa has approved 100 tourism-related projects with $408m committed.

A review finds some of the agency’s actions “unacceptable and not able to be justified”.

Moves to bring in tougher safety standards and higher costs are forcing operators to consider their viability.

A $400k STAPP grant is the only reason the attraction is open, says MD Simon Short.

The measures are being taken in the wake of the Whakaari White Island eruption, which killed 22 people.

The addition of the hotel, which is part of the Choice Hotels group, will bring 85 rooms to the system.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has opened the Business Travel Register for businesses needing to send workers to the Auckland and Northland regions after other regions drop to alert level 3 on Tuesday night.

The Novotel & Ibis Auckland Ellerslie will from today become a contingency quarantine facility able to take any overflow of Covid-19 positive community cases stemming from the Delta outbreak.

Travellers returning from Australia will revert to the pre-bubble system of securing a place in managed isolation and quarantine.

The resumption of cruises from Australia in summer appears remote even if border restrictions are eased in early 2022.

There is agreement within government and industry that climate change is tourism’s most significant environmental challenge, but the way forward remains unclear.

The tourism industry is overly reliant on government, subservient to political change, and has no strong unified direction, says former Tourism New Zealand boss George Hickton.

One of the key challenges for RTOs is making sure government funding does not run out at the end of 2022.

Revenue collected in the first year to June 2020 was $57.3m, approximately 30% lower than the forecasted revenue of $82m.

Non-exception student applications to be lapsed with fees and levies, including IVL, refunded.

The New Zealand Cruise Association wants rapid testing in place and safe bubble cruising for larger ships with reduced guest numbers in 2022.

It’s a topsy turvy world for senior hotel managers in MIQ, who can find themselves packing lunches, on security, or behind the front desk.

MBIE hopes to include more information from local governments going forward.

Support for the MIQ system will be required until at least 31 December 2022, says a government report into the facilities.

Progress is finally being made in what could be a “genuine partnership” between government and industry.

Key meetings attended by tourism minister Stuart Nash since taking up the portfolio in November 2020 include those with various taskforce bodies, local councils and industry representatives.

All regional tourism organisations around the country saw stronger domestic spending in April 2021.

The inaugural IBIS Customer Conference 2021 opens this evening with a welcome function in Queenstown, focusing on a theme of ‘Rebuilding Together’.

Tourism may have to aim for ‘high quality’ over ‘high value’ to address challenges.

But 57% said their issue was resolved, just not always to their satisfaction.

People may think we’re “making a killing” from MIQ but we’re cut off from our iso-hotels, says the hotelier.

Smaller North Island regional centres proved resilient to the post-holiday domestic tourist exodus.

A coach operator that had its airline transport contract terminated by the government and handed to a competitor is calling for fair treatment.

MBIE says it believes all 32 hotels being used will renew their MIQ contracts, which currently come to an end in April.

Visitor spend fell 11% to $1.25bn in January 2021 compared to the same month a year ago as the gap left by absent international tourists proved too large to plug for domestics.

How did the river city, traditionally overlooked by visitors, top RTO area spend in 2020?

Tourism New Zealand is forecasting a bumper domestic summer season but slates 2024 for a full recovery in international demand, according to its latest scenerio modelling of the future tourism recovery.

Three South Island regions were the hardest hit by stifled tourism spend during the three-month peak of New Zealand’s Covid-19 crisis, according to TIA analysis of the Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates.

Clarification helps the New Zealand business events sector restart for domestic attendees, and is the first step in the right direction, according to CINZ chief executive Lisa Hopkins.

Tourism minister Kelvin Davis has charged TNZ with creating a new plan for the sector.

The successor to the Accommodation Survey will aim to provide guest nights, occupancy rates and establishments, broken down by geography, at a minimum, according to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

The Mackenzie Region led a total of seven Regional Tourism Organisations that posted double-digit spending growth in January, according to the latest Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates.

International visitors from the United States have once again led spending growth, with a 29% leap in the year ended December 2019, according to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.