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Speaker 1: Back to the tourism. So they're breaking the government seventeen

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Speaker 1: percent increase in expendits. You're two point six billion for

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Speaker 1: the last quarter, which annually makes it eleven point six billion,

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Speaker 1: which is all fantastic. Anyway, the minister Matt Doocey's with us, Matt,

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Speaker 1: morning to you, morning Mike, directly after. I mean, is

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Speaker 1: this a deliberate strategy with you guys? You announce a

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Speaker 1: big increase in the levee and then the next day

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Speaker 1: you put out a press release saying, look how well

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Speaker 1: we're doing. Is that a plan?

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Speaker 2: Is it? No? No, they weren't connected, but it is

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Speaker 2: good news as our tourism sector bounced back. But who

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Speaker 2: I need to listen to is actually the tourist operators

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Speaker 2: on the ground. As I get around the country, they're

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Speaker 2: all telling me they've got a high yielding product. They're

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Speaker 2: delivering a better quality experience, and I think that's to

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Speaker 2: be celebrated.

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Speaker 1: Yep, no question about that. But seventeen percent up is

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Speaker 1: off a very low base though, and that's the reality

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Speaker 1: we've got to deal with, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Well, when you look around the world, there is some

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Speaker 2: tough economic edwinds. We've bounced back to about eighty five

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Speaker 2: percent of value from pre COVID level. And like I say,

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Speaker 2: the mood is upbeat on the ground and we want

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Speaker 2: to support that. Is a government we want to grow tourism.

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Speaker 2: We really want to back it of past tourism endst

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Speaker 2: with an ambitious goal to increase the value of international

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Speaker 2: tourism by five billion over the next four years. And

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Speaker 2: I think we're on track.

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Speaker 1: No, you're not, because here's the reality. Have you looked

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Speaker 1: to what's been happening in Europe matt over the summer

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Speaker 1: period in terms, none of them are at eighty five percent,

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Speaker 1: They're at one hundred and eighty five percent. They've got

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Speaker 1: so many tourists in that part of the world that

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Speaker 1: the locals are spraying them with water pistols and telling

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Speaker 1: them to go home. No one's doing that here. Something's

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Speaker 1: gone wrong with this country. Don't you agree with that?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think you've answered your own question to be

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Speaker 2: quite frank, Mike. When you look at the surveys for

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Speaker 2: New Zealanders, ninety three percent report that they see the

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Speaker 2: value of tourism to New Zealand. We've got huge social

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Speaker 2: license for tourism. I want to maintain that when you

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Speaker 2: look at the International Visit to Survey, ninety four percent

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Speaker 2: of our visitors report that their trip has met or

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Speaker 2: exceeded expectation. So what we're seeing is New Zealanders are

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Speaker 2: happy with tourism. Our visitors are happy, and the value

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Speaker 2: of tourism is growing year on year, and I think

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Speaker 2: we should support that.

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Speaker 1: Matt, you're missing the point completely. Asking a tourist who

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Speaker 1: came here whether they had a good time is fine,

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Speaker 1: and I'm glad they did. But you need four more

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Speaker 1: tourists that didn't come to get the numbers back to

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Speaker 1: where they were because we're not making the money we

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Speaker 1: once made and we need to.

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Speaker 2: Well, I just don't think we should have a direct

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Speaker 2: comparison of bums on seats pre COVID bums on seats today.

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Speaker 2: It's clearly about the value of tourism, the value it

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Speaker 2: brings New Zealand as an economy. Well, at the moment,

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Speaker 2: we've increased by half a billion dollars in the quarter

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Speaker 2: compared to the quarter last year.

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Speaker 1: Given the top low. I'm not blaming you because you've

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Speaker 1: only been there five minutes. What I'm telling you and

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Speaker 1: what I know for a fact, is capacities back, the

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Speaker 1: seats aren't full China. I get that's an individual story.

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Speaker 1: I understand that. But we are not competing internationally with

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Speaker 1: other countries that are back doing as well, if not

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Speaker 1: better than they used to. We're simply not doing that well.

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Speaker 1: Why are we denying this?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think it's about blame, Mike. I think

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Speaker 2: we've got the trend line going in the right direction.

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Speaker 2: Our tourist operators are upbeat. You look at Hawk's Bayos

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Speaker 2: at recently the value of their international tour as that

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Speaker 2: is forty percent above pre COVID levels West Coast and

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Speaker 2: the South Island fifteen to twenty percent. So what we're

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Speaker 2: seeing is tourism with a high yield, a better quality experience,

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Speaker 2: and that's what we want to support.

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Speaker 1: All right, man, and go well, appreciate it very much.

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Speaker 1: Matt Douci, am I am I the outlier here? Am

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Speaker 1: I the only one who's bothered by this? And everyone

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Speaker 1: else thinks it's fantastic, sitting at eighty five percent of

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Speaker 1: what it once was? And you know, wahu or is Matt?

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Speaker 1: Is Matt right?

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