NEW ZEALAND
The growth in business events and travel is without a
doubt a positive for New Zealand. The industry represents
a significant portion of the nation’s income, and a lot of
attention is paid to make sure it runs smoothly. However,
with the growth that is projected there are a number of
difficult issues that the government must tackle to make sure
the boom doesn’t do more harm than good.
Overtourism is a key problem in this space. Across the
globe, overtourism creates tension between locals and
visitors. While New Zealand is famous for its hospitable
people, a flood of visitors every year can create stress on
many key resources such as transport infrastructure, the
environment and even the price of rent and groceries.
Auckland is by far the largest city in New Zealand, with
a population of 1.7 million, and as a result feels the acute
effects of growth, both positive and negative. Luckily,
there are many key players that are invested in the future of
New Zealand and are proactive about finding solutions to
potential problems.
Mayor with a plan
Getting a time to chat with the Mayor of
Auckland, Phil Goff took some time.
Eventually, after a few weeks of emails
and phone calls I got the busy civil
servant on the line.
Phil Goff strikes me as a pragmatic
man. He’s an old school Labour
politician, with a deep-rooted history in New Zealand’s
government, and was once the leader of the Labour party
and leader of the opposition in the national parliament.
However, his extensive political resume doesn’t show
in our conversation. He delivers his plan for sustaining
Auckland’s growth with a logical tone. I ask him what he
thinks some of the hurdles that New Zealand’s largest city
will have to jump over to deal with the influx of overseas
visitors in the coming decade.
“We have the problems that growth brings to a city.
One of those is when you struggle to keep up with the
infrastructure to cope with growth,” says Goff.
He has a pragmatic approach to infrastructure. Instead
of passing the buck and blaming the opposition for past
mistakes, the Mayor takes a refreshingly long-term look at
the problem.
“You need to keep people on side. Part of the allure
of Auckland is that generally people come here and get a
friendly response, and they are welcome. We want to keep
that, it’s vital to whether you feel good about visiting a
place.”
“That means that we need to reassure Aucklanders
that the way in which we are managing this is not at the
expense of our environment, or is not adding to the
pressures that they currently suffer in terms of the ability of
infrastructure to cope,” he continues.
“We need to assure Aucklanders that built into our
strategy are plans for managing those wider factors of the
tourism industry. We need to ensure that the industry
remains welcome to Aucklanders, who in turn extend their
welcome to the visitors to their city.”
Phil Goff seems to have a very clear idea of how he
wants this industry to look in Auckland. He sums up his
perspective with a simple statement.
“Managing growth is better than the alternative—
managing decline. It puts pressure on, but it’s welcome.”
The data & digital CEO
Stephen England-Hall is a man who
keeps his cards close to his chest.
Nevertheless, he’s an interesting person
to meet and with a background in data
and digital technology, he provides a
useful perspective about its use in
promoting New Zealand to the rest of
the world and how it can help maintain sustainable tourism.
His career so far has taken him to London as CEO of a major
digital marketing agency; Toronto and Portland to work with
big brands like Coca Cola and Diago; back to his native New
Zealand to work with Government on digital strategies; then
as CEO of Loyalty NZ, the owner of Fly Buys; and finally, to
his current position as CEO of Tourism New Zealand.
The link between all his jobs is digital & data, and with
Stephen England-Hall describing himself as a self-confessed
computer geek, you may wonder what all this has to do with
tourism. It’s the smart use of data that’s going to provide
some answers to the challenges New Zealand faces in
managing the high levels of growth in tourism in the coming
years.
New Zealand’s marketeer
Lisa Gardiner is the Head of Marketing
& Sales, Premium and International
Business Events at Tourism New
Zealand. I ask Lisa Gardiner the reasons
for New Zealand’s spectacular success
in attracting Australian organisations to
take their business events offshore.
“One of the reasons is that we’ve managed to overcome
the old misconception that it’s difficult and expensive to
come over, but the reality is completely different. There’s
little or no difference for an Australian-based organisation to
run their event in New Zealand, as it is to go interstate.”
A big draw to New Zealand over the past 17 years has
been the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, which was filmed
on the South Island. One of its legacies was the movie set
Hobbiton in Matamata. That by itself doesn’t account for the
increase in visitors, let alone the growing number of business
events that would otherwise have taken place in Australia.
Lisa Gardiner points to initiatives like the Conference
Assistant Program (which executive assistants can discuss
with tourism New Zealand executives), low airfares and
the increased number of flights to and from Australia as
additionally having an impact. Oh, and don’t forget a world
class marketing campaign.
Tourism New Zealand can assist Executive assistants and
office managers who are organising conferences for over 200
people, and incentive programs for over 50 people.
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Issue 2 2019 | Chief of Staff 31