Tourism New Zealand funding frozen, 100% Pure campaign loses $3m

Tourists in the Waitomo Caves. The industry is the biggest foreign exchange earner. Photo / Supplied

Tourism New Zealand's budget has been frozen at last year's level and less will be spent on the 100% Pure campaign.

The agency had its funding cut by $6 million in the Budget last year to $111m and it remains at that level.

A breakdown of that reveals that the amount allocated over the coming year to deliver ''key messages'' through the 100% Pure NZ campaign activity is cut by $3m to $51.5m.

The organisation has already signalled it will change the focus of the 20-year-old campaign when it is relaunched next month.

Budget documents show slightly less ($300,000) is being spent on supporting third parties such as media, opinion leaders and making broadcast while significantly more ($3.5m) is being spent on partnering with the travel industry and providing information to global travel sellers to encourage them to market New Zealand.

In a separate announcement, the Budget also allocates $800,000 to allow the Government to meet its commitments for the China New Zealand Year of Tourism from July to December.

It will fund a Year of Tourism closing ceremony, to be hosted by New Zealand in China with a ministerial trade mission.

Tourism Export Council chief executive Judy Chen welcomed the dedicated funding.

''We would like to see some legacy created as a result so the industry will continue to benefit from this initiative beyond this year,'' she said.

Tourism is the country's biggest foreign exchange earner. In the past year, excluding air fares, international visitors spent $11.2 billion on holidays in this country.

Tourism NZ has been targeting higher-spending visitors rather than big numbers in a strategy it says is paying off. The country attracts just 0.3 percent of global arrivals, it is attracting 0.7 per cent of global visitor spend.

The agency is being reviewed by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment aimed at finding out how the organisation supports the Government's visitor policies.

Earlier this month Tourism Industry Aotearoa said it wants the industry to earn $50 billion within the next six years.

That figure includes Kiwis travelling within New Zealand.

In 2014 the industry set a goal of earning $41b a year by 2025. Already it was earning $39.1b a year, fuelled by the surge in the number and spending by international visitors.

Separately in the budget, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise gets $1.5m to manage and implement a programme to leverage the business opportunities generated from the Rugby World Cup, held in Japan in 2019.