New Zealand's Tourism Industry

In November 2012 the Telegraph UK ranked New Zealand the top country in the world to visit on holiday. Regarded as an outdoors, clean, and green location to visit, pursuits like whale watching, bungee jumping, mountain trekking, and expansive natural exploration opportunities, attract a high volume of tourists every year.

New Zealand Tourism Employs 10% of Workforce

Tourism is the second largest export industry in New Zealand, with dairy farming product exports just in front. The New Zealand Tourism workforce comprises 6.4% of the local population and indirectly employs 3.4% through related industries that support tourism activities. This equates to approximately one in ten of the domestic workforce employed in tourism, or approximately 180,000 persons.

New Zealand's Tourism Industry A Billion Dollar Industry

The vast majority of tourists to New Zealand visit from neighbouring Australia and a large amount of New Zealand's inhabitants spend their holidays within the country. International visitors, including Australians, spent NZD$9.6 billion in 2012, with the domestic population bringing NZD$13.8 billion to the industry.

The indirect value to GDP of supportive tourism industries in New Zealand is measured by Tourism New Zealand at NZD$9.7 billion. The export value of tourism is measured at 3.3% of domestic GDP, with 2.5 million visitors in 2012 expected to increase in 2013 by 2.7%.

Tourism Marketing in New Zealand Features Natural Environment

Tourism New Zealand has recently focused on turning the international attention that the film industry creates, into travel promotion for the islands. For example, visit New Zealand's stunning mountain ranges, and you could be standing where Frodo the Hobbit trekked towards Mt Doom, in Lord of the Rings.

The film trilogy attracted keen international interest, and awareness of New Zealand's stunning scenery, and natural attractions. This gave New Zealand tourism marketing experts room to approach international markets further afield, such as the UK, Europe, Asia, and the USA. Chinese visitors increased by 30% in 2013, South Korea by 12.2% and Malaysia by 25% with smaller increases in all visitor nationalities in 2013.

New Zealand Offers Stunning Tourism Sites to See

Top sites visitors like to see include Milford Sound, a gorgeous snow-capped mountain range, featured in Lord of the Rings part II. The hills above the Whanganui River include the site where the Hobbit village came to life, and is an area of incredible natural beauty, lazy rivers, sloping valleys, and fascinating museums, detailing the lives of New Zealand's indigenous people, the Maoris.

South Island

On New Zealand's South Island the Abel Tasman National Park attracts many tourists, with the protected park populated by many native and rare bird species. Scenic beaches span lengthy stretches of stunning coastline, and extensive trekking tracks take visitors to rivers, tiny towns, camping sites, and stunning sightseeing points.

North Island

The North Island features the rugged Tongariro Alpine Crossing World Heritage site, with a 19.4 kilometre tramping track leading to Mount Nguaruhoe. This active volcano last erupted in 2012. The scenery is very much that of a young volcanic region, where visitors pass by hot springs, emerald lakes, and walk uninterrupted through the mountainous terrain, on a journey that takes approximately 7 hours.

National Tramping Trail

Adventure tourism, tramping, and camping, are major activities in New Zealand, and this resulted in the development of the national Te Araroa Trail, where visitors can walk the entire length of the country. The 3000km route opened in 2011, and contains trail sections where people can park and walk, or park, walk, and camp overnight. It all depends on how many days' supplies individuals can carry.

To do the full trail takes between 3-6 months. The fastest recorded time, by UK marathon runner Jezz Bragg, was 53 days during the 2012 and 2013 summer season. They say he was lucky to survive, and dangerously dehydrated, at the finish point in Bluff. Most visitors take between 100 to 150 days attempting the whole trail, which is of course, perfectly safe to do, if well planned.

Tourism in New Zealand attracts adventure tourists, who desire an extended experience of natural beauty. The opportunity to spend long amounts of time, in areas of stunning, untouched, countryside; combined with the length of stay needed to completly enjoy it, makes New Zealand's tourism industry extremely profitable.