Lack of critical visitor data puts the tourism industry at risk

Friday, 2 June 2017

Tourism professor David Simmons says we are not yet at peak visitor capacity 'but we're hitting the wall in our ability to manage it.'

Two leading academics claim tourism is flying by the seat of its pants, and failure to gather more in-depth information about visitors is putting the industry at risk.

Lincoln University tourism professor David Simmons said gathering better data on visitor flows and travel patterns was crucial for managing future growth.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa says it is working on a plan to fill gaps in much-needed information about visitor travel patterns.

It was also important for handling pandemics, biosecurity risks, and natural disasters, and for deciding where to build new infrastructure.

'Our peak month had 498,000 visitors; that makes it our second biggest city, but on an average night throughout the year our fourth biggest city moves from one place to another, and we have no real tracking of them.'

'We're not necessarily at peak (visitor) capacity but we're hitting the wall in our ability to manage it.

* Mixed reaction to $178m in extra tourism and DOC funding**

Simmons said that if the Alpine Fault ruptured we needed to know how many visitors might be on the West Coast - 'it could be 12,000 or it could be 15,000.'

The dairy, apple, and wine industries paid export levies to create a 'war chest' of money for joint venture research with the government, and tourism needed something similar, he said.

Director of AUT's New Zealand Tourism Research Institute professor Simon Milne said tourism was our largest export earner yet spending on research was 'minuscule' compared with agriculture.

'We can't just keep on growing the industry and flying by the seat of our pants without this kind of information, it's absolutely critical and there's a gap there.

'It's not about looking at occupancy rates for accommodation operators, it's about understanding more broadly how the economy is linked to tourism, construction, agriculture.'

It was also important to look at how tourism affects the lives of New Zealands, instead of simply focussing on feedback from visitors about their holiday experiences, Milne said.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA) chief executive Chris Roberts said his organisation was looking at what data and information was available, what insights it provided and where the gaps were.

An action plan would be released at a tourism summit in November.

'We can say right now though that visitor travel patterns and flows is one of the areas that needs attention.'

Roberts said there was no practical way to levy the industry to cover research costs but both the public and private sectors had roles to play.

'We'll be looking closely at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's (MBIE) science and innovation fund to better understand why tourism does not get a share of that, given the size and reach of the industry.'

MBIE's general manager of evidence, monitoring and governance Michael Bird said they consulted the tourism industry about research priorities and this year they would be looking at regional spending by cruise ship passengers.

Bird said he was aware of criticism that the commercial accommodation monitor did not cover holiday homes or Airbnb, even though they were increasingly popular with visitors.

When it came to official statistics they had to abide by Statistics New Zealand's guidelines for quality and accuracy, and there were 'quite a few other providers in the market that can provide a more granular analysis.'

Those other providers include Spark's data division Qrious and the Geozone and CamperMate apps widely used by freedom campers and rental car users.

They anonymously track movements of cell phone and app users, and local authorities are using that information to help decide where to invest in roading and facilities such as camp sites and toilets.

CamperMate and Geozone founder Adam Hutchinson said their apps had about 37,000 users a day and more than 90 per cent agreed to tracking.

Technology was changing fast and both central and local government were beginning to appreciate the data it could capture, he said.

'We can tell a council how many people are arriving into their town, via which route, what time they're arriving, and we can show via heat map where people are looking for things in their area.'

Qrious chief executive David Leach said they could differentiate between domestic and international tourists, indicate how long they stayed and look at trends via historical data.

In the case of the Queenstown marathon, for example, it was possible to drill down to find out where in New Zealand visitors came from.

Economic development agency Venture Southland has used both Geozone and Qrious.

Tourism and events manager Warrick Low said the data showed what days of the week were best to target so it helped in planning and marketing events.

Evidence of traffic flows led to sealing of roads in the Catlins, and the high camper van count at Weir Beach (up to 80 a night) prompted the council to look at its bylaws because the nearest toilets were 3km away.