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Speaker 1: Quick word around the tourism. Good economic news this week,

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Speaker 1: plenty of it, and the tourism numbers add to that.

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Speaker 1: I think three point four eight million arrivals. That's up

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Speaker 1: two hundred and fourteen thousy do last year, highest level

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Speaker 1: since March of twenty twenty. They're coming from the State's Asia, Europe, China,

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Speaker 1: all up, up, up and up. Grant Webster's the chief

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Speaker 1: executive of course, of Tourism Holdings Limited, and it's back

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Speaker 1: with us. Grant Morning, good morning. Do you see it?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely yep, and I think there's more to come. January

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Speaker 2: February are going to be even better than what we've

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Speaker 2: just seen released for November.

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Speaker 1: So is your story this year? Are you still a

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Speaker 1: bit train seasonal because the idea is that we're just

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Speaker 1: busy all year round, or do you see it busy

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Speaker 1: all year in?

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Speaker 2: I know we're very very seasonal, and I think that's

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Speaker 2: the next thing for us to continue to look at.

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Speaker 2: You know, funding, seasons and regions are the three things

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Speaker 2: that I would say the next big strategic things because

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Speaker 2: the whole comparison to pre COVID, we're just about over that.

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Speaker 1: So while I was going to say what should I

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Speaker 1: be should I be optimistic that I like these numbers

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Speaker 1: or should I go but hold on, we're still low COVID.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so the below COVID thing is going to fix

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Speaker 2: itself this calendar year or in the next twelve months, right,

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Speaker 2: So that's naturally happening. But with the extra funding that

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Speaker 2: tourism New Zealand's got. The other benefit that we're going

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Speaker 2: to remember is that the US people going to the

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Speaker 2: US is a disaster at the moment, that's still really

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Speaker 2: poor and we're all benefiting from that, Canada, Australia and

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Speaker 2: of course ourselves. So you know that might not be

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Speaker 2: the case forever. So we've got to keep competing.

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Speaker 1: How reel is our dollar problem which becomes a good

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Speaker 1: thing for them.

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Speaker 2: Well, it is a good thing for the US traveling

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Speaker 2: here obviously, that's part of what's improving us right at

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Speaker 2: the moment. So yeah, we're a good, well priced destination

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Speaker 2: at this point in time. Let's make the most of it.

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Speaker 1: And does that make that I mean, if I turn

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Speaker 1: a forty two p into a dollar, I mean that

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Speaker 1: has to be material, doesn't it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. It makes a difference with what people

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Speaker 2: spend on the ground. I think I've said this before,

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Speaker 2: not necessarily where people want to travel, it does to

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Speaker 2: a degree, but they spend more when they're here, they

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Speaker 2: do more activities, they do more expensive activities.

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Speaker 1: The negative always tell me we're expensive, which I think

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Speaker 1: we are, but surely that's counteracted by the our dollar

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Speaker 1: at the moment. I mean, we must seem cheap, mustn't we.

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Speaker 2: Look it's all relative right to different destinations. Where a

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Speaker 2: long haul destination which makes us, it puts us in

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Speaker 2: the high value category. But that's fine. It's still on

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Speaker 2: a relative basis we're cheaper than what we've been.

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Speaker 1: Right, are those campaigns I've talked to, people like Louise

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Speaker 1: Upston working, you know the regional campaigns Australia campaigns, do

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Speaker 1: they work?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely? Working? Working well? They need to continue to be funded.

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Speaker 1: Right And the number this morning I heard somewhere one

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Speaker 1: million have gone to Queenstown is that too many? Are

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Speaker 1: we all Queenstown esque and we need to be elsewhere?

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Speaker 2: Look, yeah, so as I said, funding seasons regions, so yeah,

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Speaker 2: good opportunity to keep spreading it around. But Queenstown getting

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Speaker 2: those kind of numbers doesn't mean that we should sort

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Speaker 2: of stop tourism or pull back in any way, just

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Speaker 2: keep going because it's driving jobs. That's what we need

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Speaker 2: we do.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, Grant us to catch up again Grant Webster, Chief

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Speaker 1: Executive Tourism Holdings.

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