Tourism chief no stranger to firing line

Chris Roberts.

Chris Roberts is no stranger to being in the firing line.

In 2005 he was Transpower's spokesman when opposition to plans to build pylons through Waikato sparked outrage and resulted in an effigy of his boss being burned outside a public meeting.

He was also spokesman for New Zealand Oil & Gas with its 30 per cent shareholding in Pike River Coal when the company was becoming the target of anger over the fatal explosion at its mine near Greymouth.

The 48-year-old has just started as chief executive of the Tourism Industry Association - the body representing 1500 operators throughout the country.

He said he was live on television during the effigy-burning in Tirau.

"That gave me a great grounding in how to deal with stakeholders and communities.

"I was put on the front line."

The TIA job is typically a lower-profile role where he'll be a cheerleader for the $24 billion industry.

Roberts began his working life as a radio journalist before becoming a parliamentary press secretary - including working for former Labour Tourism Minister Mark Burton - and then going into corporate public relations.

It was in his most recent job at Tourism New Zealand that he became more focused on stakeholder relations, government relations and a bigger management role.

At TIA he succeeds Martin Snedden who, with his cricket background and leading role in the 2011 Rugby World Cup, had a high profile.

Roberts said he was known within the industry.

"There's been a range of different people leading this organisation," he said.

"Martin was great at pulling this sector together with this growth phase and I'm well enough known in the sector itself.

"I'm really the cheerleader for it now and poking and prodding to make sure it stays on track."

The tourism industry is worth about $24 billion and under targets launched by Snedden aims to be worth $41 billion by 2025.

Tourism is the country's second-biggest export earner but was hit by the global financial crisis between 2008 and 2011.

Operators were in a good position, despite the consistently high New Zealand dollar, Roberts said.

"Universally they're saying the tide's turned ... To survive, tourism businesses have had to improve.

"With that consistently high exchange rate we're certainly not a cheap destination for international visitors any more and New Zealanders are also expecting value at home because there's competing options offshore."

Tourism would continue to face being buffeted by what it couldn't control, he said.

New fears over air travel, attacks on visitors or ash clouds grounding planes could affect the industry and perceptions of New Zealand at any time.

"Occasionally there might be a small blip but one-off events don't tend to register.

"Long term, a combination of events can."

Chris Roberts
• Age 48.
• Married to Rachel, with two sons.
• Lives in Wellington, raised in Whakatane.
• University of Waikato bachelor of arts.
• Radio journalist - 1XX Whakatane, Radio Waikato Hamilton, Radio NZ Wellington (1986-1999).
• Parliamentary press secretary - including three years (1999-2002) with Tourism Minister Mark Burton.
• Corporate communications and stakeholder engagement - Transpower and New Zealand Oil & Gas (2002-2012).
• Previous role - GM corporate affairs at Tourism New Zealand (2012-2014).
• Current chairman of i-SITE NZ.