Louise Upston: Tourism Minister on the rise in international visitor spending

Tourists are being told New Zealand is open for business. 

A Government survey's found international visitor spending increased by 10% and contributed more than $12 billion to the economy in the year ending March. 

But this is only 86% of pre-Covid visitor numbers and spending.  

Tourism Minister Louise Upston told Mike Hosking it shows there's work to be done, especially targeting key markets like China.  

She says we want our visitors to return and come back in the numbers they were. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So what do we make of the latest tourism numbers.
We have arrivals and spend International visitors. Spending is up
almost ten percent on last year now pulling in over
twelve billion. We had three point three two million visitors arrive,
which is up four point three percent. The Minister is
Louise Upston, who's with us. Very good morning, good morning
to you.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Mite.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Still below COVID though.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yes, it's frustrating. So we're at eighty six percent of
what we were pre COVID, So we know we've got
work ahead of us, which is why part of our
sort of twenty point four million dollar tourism boost was
really to drive those visitor numbers and it's really exciting
the industries on board and there's a real enthusiasm so
bringing more visitors to New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
I don't think it was you, but I talked to
someone in tourism in the last couple of months and
they were spinning the line that the spenders back to
what it was. And what I didn't realize at the
time but do now, is that they were spinning the
line because it didn't include inflation. Now is the industry
deluding itself? In other words, they're pretending things are better
than they are.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
No. So if you look at the visit to number,
so we're sitting at eighty six percent of pre COVID
and in terms of international spending that to AD eighty
six percent as well. So we are on a part.
What we have to do is make sure we are
focusing our efforts on the markets that we know spend
more and stay longer. So China, for example, is well

(01:21):
down on what the numbers were pre COVID and that's
why as part of the most recent announcement, we've got
focused efforts on the China market and reducing the friction,
like we did with the removing the certification requirements that
we announced at trends a few weeks back.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
They are lost course, and I don't mean to be
negative in saying that, but they are not coming back.
Then they've seem to have won, got an economy that's problematic.
And two, where they do travel, they seem to be
traveling sort of regionally now as opposed to coming to
places like New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Well, I think they were getting mixed messages from us
about whether we were open for business, whether we wanted
them to come or not so since I've been Minister,
I've been very clear that New Zealand is open for business.
We want our visitors to return, and we welcome Chinese
visitors back. We want them to come back in the
numbers they were. They do travel slightly differently than they

(02:17):
used to do, so they travel more independently than in groups.
But look, we've got plenty of capacity. There wouldn't be
many businesses around New Zealand that aren't looking for more customers.
And that's what we're going to do. We've got to
make sure that visitors know we're open and welcoming for
them to come.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
How big a headaches Queenstown because Queenstown's booming to the
point where it's hard to get around, whereas the rest
of the country needs the tourists that are in Queenstown.
What do we do about that?

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, that's when when we talk about the Regional Boost campaign.
It's about moving visitors into our regions. So they might
land in Queenstown, but let's get keep them out through
Central Osago, flying out of Dunedin, for example, And so
we focus on regional dispersal. We want to make sure
that people are traveling around the country around the regions,

(03:03):
staying for longer, which also means they are more likely
to spend more money which when they're here, which is
crucial for our growing economy.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
All right, stay at it. Louise Upston, Minister of Tourism,
with us this morning. By the way, in New Zealand
sticking bigger planes on a couple of Routsumbury pleas to
report Auckland, christ Church, aalklan Quens Down, Auckland and Nedin
from the end of this month until October. That's an
extra thirty six thousand seats. Six hundred and sixteen flights
are going to be up gauged is what they call it.
You put a bigger plane on when thirty seven new
flights actually added. They're pulling out the A three twenty

(03:37):
and putting in the A three twenty one Neo. So
that's all good. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,
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