Tourism is opening up new opportunities for your average Kiwi, with last week’s announcement of the Tourism Attraction Programme at the Tourism Summit Aotearoa in Wellington.
Announced by Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis and Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford, the TAP is a cross-agency government initiative aiming to boost private investment into New Zealand’s tourism attractions.
"This Programme will help the Government make progress on our goal to enrich New Zealand through sustainable tourism growth,” says Kelvin. “As our largest export earner, tourism plays a pivotal role in the economy and so it’s important we are committed to attracting high-quality investment in the sector.”
Rotorua Canopy Tours was singled out at the Summit as a key activity in Rotorua and general manager Paul Button says the Tourism Attraction Programme sounds promising for the tourism industry landscape.
“We welcome the newly launched Tourism Attraction Programme that calls for more private investment into New Zealand’s tourism industry,” he says.
“Our tourism industry is a remarkable success story which has grown massively over the last few decades to become our largest sector. There really is a shortage of capital to those starting out when it’s toughest and because of this, many great potential tourism businesses don’t go the distance.”
Paul says the TAP opens up opportunites for Kiwis to invest in other New Zealand assets aside from property.
“Kiwi’s love investing in property, but there’s an opportunity for Kiwis to invest in great developing tourism businesses.
““New Zealand is an amazing industry – the framework in the industry is amazing. Tourism New Zealand is really beating the drum and hunting the right markets to bring to New Zealand, so it’s a really well supported industry in that sense.
“If there wasn’t that overarching agency bringing tourists to New Zealand, it would be a lot riskier. It’s incredibly well-supported, it really blows my mind how well-supported it is here,” says Paul.
“I’d like to see a level of trust grow and for people to invest into New Zealand tourism. Kiwi’s are very property-heavy investors and the recent changes by governments to the mortgage lending laws further demonstrate that.”
And Paul says the tourism landscape in New Zealand is a lot different now thanks to it’s growth as a proven industry.
“Because of the industry at the time Rotorua Canopy Tours started out, it may have been a bigger risk for us to gain private investment because there was no proven industry at the time. Nowadays there’s a proven industry and private investment would definitely help.
“Tourism is a people business – it’s products and services that are delivered by people, for people, so the investment into tourism is good because you’re investing into humans – there’s a direct benefit.”
He says the TAP is an exciting step forward and a great opportunity to grow New Zealand’s tourism industry with the help of Kiwis.
“It’s a really great way for Kiwis to diversify or focus their investment portfolio with tourism as an option now when I don’t think many people saw it as an option before.
“It’s the biggest industry in New Zealand so it’s definitely got some clout.”
Rotorua Canopy Tours is known for their unique approach to telling their story on the tours.
““Within our product it’s a big part of the visitor experience – we tell our story on tour. It’s one thing that we do that’s quite unique; we tell a different story we tell our story, whereas a lot of other products and services might focus on the story of the area or a generic story of New Zealand. We tell the story of the challenges of conservation and forest regrowth and we really highlight the biodiversity challenges we face here in New Zealand and what we’ve done about them and the future of that,” says Paul.
““The rehabilitation of the forest is incredible – there’s nowhere else in New Zealand that you have a forest of that age with that much restoration. And the restoration is amazing with the forest regrowth, the birds, the ground layer… it’s incredible.
“It’s very Kiwi, it’s a must-do for every New Zealander.”
