TOURISM BUSINESS MAGAZINE – JAN/FEB 2014
Being the start of the year it is an opportune time to indicate the priorities for the Tourism Export Council during 2014.
- GST on margins for Inbound Tour Operators (ITO’s)
- Immigration visas re staff recruitment and clients
- New Zealand – a ‘national park of 4 million’
The Board has been working behind the scenes on advancing the ‘margins on gst’ issue, supported by TIA. While many in the industry think they are not affected by this issue, they are mistaken. Tourism exporters (ITO’s) are the only export sector that has to pay gst on their margins and this makes the law flawed and inequitable. The Covec economic impact report commissioned in 2012 was to determine the economic contribution of inbound operators to the tourism industry and the economy. It found that for every $1milion spent by an ITO, $817,000 went to tourism suppliers. If ITO’s were able to retain the margins, then more would be spent on international marketing and staff employment. This in turn would stimulate more spend down the tourism channels to operators. A ruling by the Australian High Court in 2013 ruled in favour of Australian inbound tour operators and makes New Zealand ITO’s even more uncompetitive. This issue is at the top of our list and we thank others in the industry who also support our cause.
In November 2013 we did a member survey on ‘immigration challenges’ re potential barriers for our international visitors to get to New Zealand and staff recruitment. This issue has been in the wings over recent years but definitely needs to come to the forefront. Business is being lost with the delays in processing over some visas and it is near impossible to recruit or retain valued multi language staff as the ‘labour market test’ gets enforced unfairly. 80% of members indicate they will need multi language staff – particularly Chinese and South East Asian speakers. It is the intention that we highlight this issue to Immigration and multi language speakers onto the ‘skills shortage list’.
Last year members clearly indicated that we need to do more to live up to our 100% Pure New Zealand promise and that we need to protect and maintain our most precious international marketing asset – the environment. If we can galvanise the nation to a ‘stadium of 4 million’ to support rugby, then why not a “national park of 4 million?” New Zealand in its entirety is a national park, surrounded by glorious coastline with stunning countryside and mountain views. We seriously need to re-visit the issue of an ‘environmental international tax/levy’ either on arrival or departure from New Zealand and have it targeted for environmental sustainability. International visitors would pay happily for the privilege of visiting New Zealand and we should be thinking of how we can manage it in today’s business environment so that we can free up DOC compliance staff to “conserve and not police”. If you have any views on this, we would be pleased to hear from you.
The Board and I will be working hard to achieve positive outcomes for the above as well as general operational activities representing your views to the appropriate tourism agencies. Save the Tourism Conference 2014 dates now – 26/27 August in Hamilton!