1
00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:02,880
Speaker 1: Tourism well and truly back in business. Total spend has

2
00:00:02,920 --> 00:00:05,280
Speaker 1: hit forty six point six billion in the year of March.

3
00:00:05,320 --> 00:00:08,600
Speaker 1: That's up three point three percent. Now overseas visitors spend

4
00:00:08,640 --> 00:00:10,920
Speaker 1: this is your foreigners coming here and having fun, jump

5
00:00:11,039 --> 00:00:14,800
Speaker 1: seven percent to eighteen point one billion. Eleven percent of

6
00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:17,760
Speaker 1: the workforce is tourism employed in the sector, so that's good.

7
00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,520
Speaker 1: Louise Upston, Tourism Minister here to talk about the numbers. Louise,

8
00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:23,840
Speaker 1: good morning, Good morning Ran. That is good news and

9
00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:26,520
Speaker 1: particularly the foreign visitors and the Chinese are coming back.

10
00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:29,080
Speaker 1: They're still not recovered from COVID.

11
00:00:28,760 --> 00:00:33,200
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, So just the numbers that were released yesterday

12
00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:38,080
Speaker 2: relate to the period to March twenty five, so that

13
00:00:38,280 --> 00:00:41,040
Speaker 2: is you know, looking at historic data. But it's really

14
00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:45,120
Speaker 2: great to see strong recovery in international visitors because if

15
00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:48,480
Speaker 2: you think about what that means, more tourists means more

16
00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:52,199
Speaker 2: customers for Kiwi businesses. That's why we're seeing the jobs,

17
00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:56,960
Speaker 2: the number of Kiwis employed in tourism and hospitality increasing

18
00:00:57,000 --> 00:00:59,680
Speaker 2: as well. That's exactly what we want in terms of

19
00:00:59,680 --> 00:01:00,720
Speaker 2: growing the economy.

20
00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:03,920
Speaker 1: In terms of the Chinese numbers. Have you seen in

21
00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:07,080
Speaker 1: the intervening period them coming back stronger.

22
00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:12,640
Speaker 2: Definitely, So tourism businesses would say the Lunar New Year period,

23
00:01:12,680 --> 00:01:15,639
Speaker 2: which is just the last few weeks, has been particularly strong.

24
00:01:16,560 --> 00:01:18,520
Speaker 2: There were a number of changes that we made at

25
00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:22,160
Speaker 2: the end of last year around some visa settings that

26
00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:25,120
Speaker 2: have had a significant impact. One of them is that

27
00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:29,039
Speaker 2: if a Chinese person is in Australia and they have

28
00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:33,160
Speaker 2: an Australian visa, they can enter New Zealand visa free.

29
00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:37,360
Speaker 2: We think, and we're trialing that for twelve months. We

30
00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:41,480
Speaker 2: think that's had a really significant impact. So as we

31
00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:45,280
Speaker 2: see more data coming out, I'm very very positive that

32
00:01:45,319 --> 00:01:49,520
Speaker 2: we will achieve our target of getting our visitor numbers

33
00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:51,480
Speaker 2: back to what they were pre COVID.

34
00:01:52,080 --> 00:01:55,040
Speaker 1: We're still I mean, tourism was number one in terms

35
00:01:55,080 --> 00:01:59,440
Speaker 1: of expert export earnings pre COVID. We haven't returned it

36
00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:01,400
Speaker 1: to its men tool yet. Do you think that'll come

37
00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:03,480
Speaker 1: soon or do you think there is just doing too good?

38
00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:08,040
Speaker 2: Well, we're at number two at the moment, and we

39
00:02:08,120 --> 00:02:12,080
Speaker 2: do have an ambitious target to double the value of

40
00:02:12,200 --> 00:02:16,160
Speaker 2: tourism exports within the decade, and we've got a tourism

41
00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:20,280
Speaker 2: growth roadmap that basically maps out how we do that,

42
00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:24,600
Speaker 2: but it is important. Export growth is important because it

43
00:02:24,639 --> 00:02:28,720
Speaker 2: directly means an increase in jobs for New Zealanders. Key.

44
00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:32,760
Speaker 2: We businesses are growing and that means an increase in wages.

45
00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:35,480
Speaker 2: So that's why it is absolutely critical that we keep

46
00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:40,239
Speaker 2: our focus on growing tourism and I'm really really excited

47
00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:42,320
Speaker 2: to see that we're seeing results already.

48
00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:44,840
Speaker 1: All Right, well, appreciate your time this morning. Louise upstin

49
00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:49,079
Speaker 1: the Tourism Minister. For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge,

50
00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:52,600
Speaker 1: listen live to news talks there be from five am weekdays,

51
00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:54,919
Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio