Tourism Satellite Account: 2009

Tourism plays a significant role in the New Zealand economy in terms of the production of goods and services and the creation of employment opportunities. Tourism expenditure includes spending by international and resident household tourists as well as business and government travellers. International tourism expenditure includes spending by foreign students studying in New Zealand for less than 12 months.

Key results for the year ended March 2009 are:

• Total tourism expenditure was $21.7 billion, increasing 1.1 percent from the previous year.
• International tourism decreased 0.9 percent ($87 million) from the previous year to $9.3 billion and contributed 16.4 percent to New Zealand’s total exports of goods and services. 
• Domestic tourism expenditure was $12.4 billion, an increase of 2.6 percent from the previous year.
• Tourism generated a direct contribution to GDP of $6.4 billion, or 3.8 percent of GDP. This represents a decrease from 4.1 percent in the previous year.
• The indirect value added of industries supporting tourism generated an additional $8.7 billion to tourism.
• The tourism industry directly employed 94,600 full-time equivalent employees (or 4.9 percent of total employment in New Zealand), an increase of 0.4 percent from the previous year. 
• Tourists generated $1.6 billion in goods and services tax (GST) revenue.

Statistics New Zealand’s Accommodation Survey recorded 32.1 million guest nights spent in short-term commercial accommodation in the year ended March 2009, a 3.8 percent decrease compared with the year ended March 2008. This follows an increase of 3.5 percent in the year ended March 2008 and an increase of 3.1 percent in the year ended March 2007.

Tourism Satellite Account: 2009 is the first in this series of publications to implement a new standard introduced by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and approved by the United Nations Statistical Commission relating to the derivation of tourism value added. The implications of this new standard has led to a change in the levels of both direct and indirect tourism value added for all years. However it does not affect the aggregated total tourism value added. Further details regarding this new standard are explained in appendix 1.

Figure 1 traces the flows of tourism expenditure through the New Zealand economy for the year ended March 2009. It shows the value tourism adds to the New Zealand economy, to the goods and services tax (GST) received by government, and to the imports of goods and services.

Figure 1

 

Key results by topic for the year ended March 2009

Tourism expenditure

• Total tourism expenditure increased 1.1 percent to $21.7 billion, the lowest annual increase since official tourism expenditure measures were first devised in 1999 (see table 1).
• Tourism expenditure generated $6.4 billion of direct value added, representing a 3.8 percent contribution to GDP. A further $8.7 billion of indirect value added activity was recorded (see table 1 and figure 2).

 

Table 1

 

Figure 2

 

• Direct and indirect tourism value added, when combined, account for 69 cents in every dollar spent by tourists, while GST accounts for 7 cents in every dollar spent by tourists. The remainder represents imports (see figure 3).

 

Figure 3

 

• The main products purchased by tourists are retail goods (including fuel and other automotive products) and air passenger transport, contributing 31 percent and 19 percent, respectively (before GST). Tourists spent 11 percent of their budget on food and beverage serving services and 9 percent on accommodation (see figure 4).
  

Figure 4

 

• International tourism expenditure fell 0.9 percent whilst domestic tourism expenditure increased 2.6 percent (see table 2 and figure 5).

 

Table 2

  

Figure 5

 

Exports

• International tourism continues to be a major export earner for New Zealand and compares favourably with other traditional export products (see figure 6).
  

Figure 6

 

• International tourism’s contribution to total exports, at $9.3 billion (16.4 percent of exports), is less than the export receipts from dairy products, including casein, which totalled $10.0 billion (17.6 percent of exports).
  

Note that international tourism is compared against primary exports in figure 6.

Employment

• The tourism industry directly employed 94,600 full-time equivalent employees, an increase of 0.4 percent from the previous year. This includes employment generated by foreign students studying in New Zealand for less than 12 months (see table 3).
• Tourism activity directly generated 4.9 percent of total employment in New Zealand (see table 3). This compares with tourism generating 3.8 percent of direct value added to GDP. The fact that tourism contributes more to total employment than it does to direct value added reflects a higher level of labour intensity in tourism industries.

 

Table 3

 

 

Overseas visitor arrivals

Table 4 presents the breakdown of international visitors by region of last permanent residence and by purpose of visit for the years ended March 2006–09.

• International tourism expenditure fell 0.9 percent whilst domestic tourism expenditure increased 2.6 percent (see table 2 and figure 5).
  

Table 4

 

• International visitors decreased 3.9 percent (96,275), following an increase of 2.1 percent in the previous year. Visitor numbers from all international regions with the exception of Oceania decreased. 
• Visitors from Oceania (predominantly Australia) increased 1.7 percent (18,409) following a 5.9 percent (60,696) increase in the previous year. Visitor numbers from both Asia and Europe recorded two consecutive years of negative growth.
• Much of the decline in short-term arrivals to New Zealand stemmed from holiday/vacation and business purpose visits. These categories decreased 7.0 percent (85,845) and 7.3 percent (19,528), respectively. The ‘visiting friends/relatives’ and ‘other’ categories recorded small increases.
  

In the context of the TSA, the term ‘tourist’ includes travellers who might not usually be associated with the term. For instance, in addition to holiday and leisure travel, it covers other activities of visitors, such as conducting business, attending meetings and conferences, and arriving for short-term education. Domestic costs incurred by New Zealanders travelling overseas are included in domestic travel expenditure, as well as off-trip purchases of tourism-specific consumer durable goods. 

Tourism-related events

A number of key tourism-related events influenced New Zealand over the period covered by Tourism Satellite Account: 2009, the March years 2006–09:

• Cheaper trans-Tasman airfares and a strong New Zealand dollar have led to continued strong growth in the number of New Zealanders holidaying in Australia and other overseas destinations.
• The Easter holiday period did not occur in the March 2009 year, but it occurred twice in the March 2008 year, once in the March 2007 year, and not in the March 2006 year.
• The global financial crisis contributed to a decline in economic activity including that of tourism.
• The 2005 British and Irish Lions Rugby Tour generated international and domestic tourism activity within New Zealand for the year ended March 2006.
• The decline in the number of international students in the March 2006 year coincided with a reduction in the number of English language schools operating within New Zealand.
• More than 45 films and telefeatures were filmed completely, or in part, in New Zealand between the March years of 2006–09. A number of these were successful internationally.