July 06, 2022
Two for one tourism touted in trans Tasman talks
Prime Minister Jacinda Arden is in Sydney today for talks with her Australian counterpart, and officials have been there for days preparing the ground.
Dale Stephens from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, who also chairs New Zealand Māori Tourism, says there are advantages for both countries to work together to recover economically from Covid.
As well as discussions on economic links, regional security, Indigenous co-operation, migration settings, economic recovery and climate change, the leadership forum will also include some high-level tourism meetings.
“The rationale being that economy of scale says that if we can encourage northern hemisphere or Asian tourists to this part of the world where they can go to both Australia and New Zealand, then there’s an opportunity for both countries to market to those groups and encourage them to do both countries as a way of getting more people down this way,” Mr Stephens says.
He says in Queenstown only 20 percent of visitors are international, so authorities are keen to ramp up that number.