National wants to launch a national tourism festival and an accreditation process for private accommodation providers to become managed isolation facilities as part of its $105 million tourism promise.
It says it would use its Infrastructure Bank and create a Tourism Accelerator fund to develop the sector in the absence of international tourists.
Under the scheme, tourism operators would be eligible to apply for up to 70 per cent of the funding for projects that meet the criteria of increasing demand within the tourism sector.
National would also regulate freedom camping and give the massive tourism conference TRENZ $5 million over the next two years.
The policy was unveiled this afternoon in Rotorua by National leader Judith Collins and tourism spokesperson and MP for Rotorua Todd McClay.
It said the Infrastructure Bank would sit alongside its Tourism Accelerator Fund to focus on regional projects and help them find financing.
Under the $100m Tourism Accelerator Fund, tourism operators would be eligible to apply for up to 70 per cent of the funding for projects which increase demand in the tourism sector.
The minimum co-investment expected from the private sector would be 30 per cent.
It is also offering the sector a New Zealand Tourism Festival modelled off the REAL New Zealand Festival that ran over Rugby World Cup 2011, and involved more than 1200 home-grown events in 86 towns and centres nationwide.
"National will do it again at a bigger scale to assist the recovery of the tourism industry and regional economies."
If elected, National would work with the Lotteries Commission, Tourism New Zealand and industry bodies to progress a programme of events and funding for this event to be held next year.
It is also promising to:
• Open travel bubbles with Covid-free neighbouring countries "when they are safe to do so". It didn't give a timeline on this.
• Allow accommodation providers to gain approval to act as managed isolation facilities.
• Investigate the possibility of cruise ships operating domestically in New Zealand for Kiwi travellers over summer, particularly to popular destinations such as Fiordland and the Bay of Islands.
• Establish the Tourism 2025 Fund to bring together unallocated funding from the Tourism Infrastructure Fund and from the International Visitor Levy.
• Ensure there are no new bed taxes and put a freeze on any more government levies and charges on tourists.
• Begin work to establish two new National Parks – one on the Coromandel Peninsula and one in the Catlins - and build two new Great Walks.
And its pitch to regulate freedom camping would build on Anne Tolley's Member's Bill that updates freedom camping legislation to make the rules more consistent.
It would restrict vehicles which aren't self-contained to only be able to stay overnight at spots within 200m of a toilet, empower councils to limit freedom camping on land they control and bring in harsher penalties for rule-breakers.
Collins said National had listened to the sector and developed a plan to work collaboratively by partnering with local government, iwi and tourism sector representatives.
Collins said New Zealand was in the worst economic crisis in living memory and the Tourism Minister had been invisible.
"Labour's attitude to tourism over recent years has been marked by a lack of leadership, misunderstanding the sector, slow decision-making, and too much bureaucracy.
"Inexplicable decisions have been made, including axing the valuable Accommodation Survey because government departments argued over funding it."