McClay Todd: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMcClay Todd: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 01 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19045. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TODD McCLAY (Associate Minister of Tourism):It gives me pleasure to take a call on tourism in this part of the debate. The reason for that is that tourism is so very important to our country. Indeed it is so important to our country that the Prime Minister himself decided to give it the honour it deserves and take on the responsibility for tourism. That is very good news for all those who are involved in tourism in New Zealand. The Government’s commitment to tourism over the last 6 years has been greater than any Government’s ever before in this country.What does this mean for Kiwis on the ground in New Zealand? Well it is very simple. It means greater effort into the local economy and it means more jobs—that is right; more jobs in tourism for New Zealanders. At the end of May this year almost 2.8 million visitors had come to New Zealand an increase of some 6 percent. In part that is because of the great work the sector has done and the very important work and commitment on the part of the Government. But it is really about a new relationship where the tourism sector businesses up and down New Zealand have joined with the Government to put New Zealand’s best foot forward and to promote the great things that we do here to the rest of the world.I asked earlier what this means to the economy. Members opposite keep squealing about jobs. They are disappointed that job growth in New Zealand is on the way up and unemployment in New Zealand is on the way down. During that same period of time up to May 2014 there was an increase in spending of 9 percent on the part of those visitors. That means more people are coming and they are spending more than they were before. Again in every part of New Zealand from our largest cities to our provinces and certainly in regional and rural New Zealand that is really really good news.A quick note shows that over the last 6 years the Government has committed and spent $600 million on the promotion of tourism in New Zealand. That is very important when one considers where those visitors are coming from and why they choose to come to New Zealand. We know it is a beautiful country. We know they have a great time when they are here. We know it is a safe country to visit under this Government. But here is where it gets really interesting. Do you remember those movies that were made in New Zealand that members opposite did not want to be made?An increasing number of visitors to New Zealand when they get off the plane say that the reason they have decided to visit New Zealand with their families for a holiday and to spend money here is that they have seen the Hobbit movies when they have been sitting at home in their own countries. That is a great way that the Government has leveraged the use of taxpayer funding to support up to 5000 jobs being created in New Zealand as part of the film industry. Now more people are visiting New Zealand because they have seen films that feature New Zealand and they are staying for longer and spending money in all parts of our economy which boosts jobs grows jobs in our regions.I want to pick on two parts as an example. The first is our traditional markets. The Government in the Budget last year committed an extra $134 million to spend in a number of areas of tourism. That certainly looked at where growth and potential will come from in the future. We committed $34 million to significantly expand focus on international business events—very important for our cities particularly—and $44.5 million has been allocated to attract visitors from emerging markets like India Indonesia and Latin America.Next year New Zealand will co-host with Australia some of the games of the Cricket World Cup. That is one of the largest sporting events. It will be watched by people all around the world. We have agreed with Australia on a border policy whereby people who come from India can if they have a visa for Australia travel to New Zealand without getting another visa to come and look at our country and to watch these great games of cricket. That is going to be really very important for us and it shows that the Government is focused on the future in terms of where demand will grow in some of these countries that have a lot of interest in New Zealand.But we are also spending time and effort focusing on the existing markets of the USA of the UK and certainly of other parts of Europe. Here is a really interesting statistic: growth over the last 12 months of visitors from the US was 9 percent but their spending was up by 55 percent. So 9 percent more of them came and 55 percent more was spent in our regions. The Government is committed to tourism. The Prime Minister as the Minister of Tourism is doing more work in tourism than any other Minister has done before. Our economic commitment is there. We have joined with the sector. It is good news because it is about jobs it is about the local economy and it is about our commitment to growing New Zealand.Vote agreed to.