By SIMON HENDERY
The tourism action group the industry's response to the international travel confidence crisis says it will take a further fortnight to assess how the attacks on the United States will affect tourism into the New Year.
The group, made up of Tourism New Zealand, the Inbound Tour
Operators Council and the Tourism Industry Association, yesterday met Qantas and Air New Zealand.
"We're holding to the same view that we had before that the market will be down from now to the end of the year by about 10 per cent," Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton said.
When it meets again in two weeks, the group hopes to have more details on the falloff of forward bookings into the New Year.
It was impossible to know how yesterday's strikes against Afghanistan would affect international travel, Mr Hickton said. "It's a question of how soon it's over."
Though the terror attacks have prompted tourists around the world to cancel trips or put off travel plans, local businesses hope the perception of New Zealand as a safe destination will make it an attractive holiday spot particularly for Australian, British and Japanese travellers.
Mr Hickton said Tourism New Zealand planned to concentrate its marketing focus on those countries, and it was also reassessing how it approached the US market.
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