New Zealand tourism's annual showcase is being held in Rotorua next week, as new and existing pressures continue to force the industry to evolve.
More than 400 tourism businesses, with operations from Stewart Island to Cape Reinga, will be taking part in the annual Tourism Rendezvous New Zealand(Trenz) event.
They will be trying to attract the attention of more than 350 international travel and tourism buyers from 28 countries.
In the past Trenz was held in Auckland or Christchurch, with suitable venues lacking elsewhere, but the opening of Rotorua's Energy Events Centre enabled organisers to hold the event in the tourism-oriented Bay of Plenty city.
Tourism Industry Association chief executive Fiona Luhrs said tourism boosted economies in areas where few other business or employment opportunities existed.
Figures gathered by TIA from the Ministry of Tourism put the value of tourism to the West Coast at 37 per cent of the region's economy, 23.6 per cent of Otago's economy and 20.9 per cent of Northland's.
According to latest figures from Statistics New Zealand, total tourism expenditure in New Zealand in the year to March was $17.5 billion.
International tourism contributed $8.1 billion to total New Zealand exports in 2005, 18.7 per cent of the total, compared to $5.7 billion (13.2 per cent) in export receipts from dairy products and casein.
But tourism's share of total industry gross domestic product dropped by 0.2 percentage points from 2004 to 4.8 per cent. That implied that the direct value-added of tourism industries had been growing more slowly than the rest of the economy, Statistics said.
And in a draft, published this week, of a strategy for the industry to 2015, industry leaders acknowledged that tourism businesses needed to achieve better returns on investment.
Research suggested that strong economic growth in tourism during the past five years had been linked to growth in visitor numbers, rather than increased profits, the strategy said.
