A shakeup of the national tourism industry has been signalled by tourism minister Kelvin Davis and Lake Wanaka Tourism’s general manager said that tourism post-COVID-19 will involve a “rebuild” rather than a recovery.

Government, industry and business are working together to develop a plan for how tourism will operate in a post-COVID-19 world, tourism minister Kelvin Davis said last week.

“A post-COVID tourism industry will play an important role in New Zealand’s economic recovery, but it will be different to the one that we are accustomed to. There will be new challenges, new opportunities and a new way of working,” he said.

Kelvin has tasked Tourism New Zealand with leading a piece of work alongside MBIE, the Department of Conservation, and industry stakeholders “to reimagine the way we govern tourism, how we market domestically and internationally, who we market to, and how we manage visitors when they arrive on our shores”.

“We have an opportunity to rethink the entire way we approach tourism to ensure that it will make New Zealand a more sustainable place, enrich the lives of all our people and deliver a sector which is financially self-sustaining in the longer term.

Lake Wanaka Tourism (LWT) general manager James Helmore said he welcomed the minister’s announcement and he expects to receive advice on the tourism recovery plan in the next two weeks.

“The opportunity to reimagine tourism to be a truly viable and sustainable industry really mirrors the values and sentiment of the Wanaka community, and will be the best possible scenario for our environment, residents, businesses and visitors,” James said.

Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis says industry experts will look at promoting domestic tourism in the short term. PHOTO: Supplied

He said the general consensus locally was the local community would begin to drive demand for tourism, with the district and regional market following suit.

With strict new border controls and quarantine measures in place, James predicted any future international travel demand could be limited to people from those countries that have COVID-19 under control.

The Southern Lakes Recovery and Response Advisory Group (of which LWT is a member) has developed various scenarios for rebuilding the local tourism economy, across all four COVID-19 alert levels, ranging from optimistic to conservative to pessimistic, he said.

“There is so much uncertainty . . . if we can provide more clarity for our community - that’s our tourism, business and general community - that’s what we want to do,’’ James said.

“It is fair to say amongst the business community there is a really wide range of emotions and feelings. There is a lot of angst and concern and emotion when you have to let staff go that you’ve had with you for some time,’’ he said.

First and foremost, it was important to break the chain of transmission during the lockdown and eliminate COVID-19 so people could have reasonable freedom of movement within New Zealand, he said.

Scenario planning had looked at the possibility of a progressive lift of restrictions around the country, and stepping back down through various alert levels. Alert level one would probably allow select international visitors to come, James said.

Queenstown Lakes District Council mayor Jim Boult has said there is a need to accelerate diversity in business in the district.

James agreed diversity was important. Tourism would look quite different after the pandemic eased, he said.

“It is fair to say that tourism, when it re-emerges, will be a rebuild. It won’t be a recovery. It will be a rebuild.’’

Kelvin Davis said that, given international travel is likely to be heavily restricted for some time, the new plan will take a phased approach, “looking at how we can focus on and promote domestic tourism in the short term and how we can target an international offering”.

Tourism New Zealand chief executive Stephen England-Hall said the rethink is an opportunity to listen to communities and design the future of tourism in New Zealand.

Kelvin said he and conservation minister Eugenie Sage have also agreed to review the international visitor levy (IVL) proposed by central government last year.

“This plan was prepared at a different time, for a different future. We are now looking at what aspects of the plan remain fit for purpose, and how the IVL can be best used to help rebuild the tourism industry as part of a restart package,” Kelvin said.

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