Tourism 2050

He Pae Tukutuku – our 2050 Vision

Enriching Aotearoa New Zealand through a flourishing tourism ecosystem

Tourism makes a vital contribution to our economy, encourages social connectivity internationally and domestically, and showcases our whenua, our cultural diversity and timeless experiences. Tourism fosters pride and is a catalyst for regional prosperity. 

Our vision is for a tourism industry that delivers strongly and positively for Aotearoa New Zealand, our people, our economy, and our environment. This is an exciting future where tourism takes on thechallenges ahead while always providing world class visitor experiences and wide benefits for New Zealanders, The central premise of this Tourism 2050 Blueprint is balanced growth where tourism is aflourishing and growing industry that contributes to people, place and culture.

Getting there will require deliberate action. In examining the strategic pathway to 2050, it is clear that in order to navigate the opportunities and challenges we face (including aviation growth, climatechange, carbon emissions, destination development, ensuring community support, market competition, and others), we must be better equipped for managing and operating the tourism system and for dealing with issues as they arise. This will involve having the levers, funding and evidence to enable effective policy making, resource allocation, infrastructure investment, planning, product development, capability-building, destination management, and so on. 

In developing this Blueprint, it has become increasingly apparent that the current settings for tourism in Aotearoa New Zealand are not adequate for ensuring the type of stewardship that we need, and it identified some key areas where important change is needed. This Blueprint sets out the tourism industry’s plan for driving its future and sets the Vision of the tourism industry to 2050 to: Enrich Aotearoa New Zealand through a flourishing tourism ecosystem. The Strategic Response to enable attainment of this Vision is:

1. Reset System Design and Management. Actions about the design of the tourism system, how tourism is funded, the insights needed for decision making and embracing Te Whakarae Māori.
   
2. Action on Carbon Emissions and Biodiversity. Actions about addressing carbon, lifting tourism contributions to predator free and biodiversity restoration, and how tourism works with our conservation lands and waters.
   
3. Equip Tourism Businesses. Actions about increasing the capability of tourism businesses to be prosperous and operate sustainably, growing a sustainable tourism workforce and embedding Tiaki throughout the tourism industry. 

These Actions are designed to be a mix of the system level change and grass-roots actions that everyone in the industry can contribute to. Cumulatively, these Actions will allow us to achieve the desired Outcomes, and the Targets will keep us accountable. Most of these Actions work interchangeably with the others, meaning that multiple gains will be achieved through their advancement. For instance, Te Whakarae Māori is an all-embracing Action that has linkages across allareas and will shape engagement between the industry and iwi, hapū and whānau as we apply the stewardship that the Blueprint is seeking. 

To advance the Actions, support from industry, government and individual businesses is needed. The Government role will be particularly important in working with industry to enable the necessary system level changes. And, a feature of the Actions is that some of them can only be activated by individual businesses themselves, big or small. There is something in the Blueprint for everyone. We are in this together, and we all have a role to play.

Let’s boldly take these transformative steps.