National tourism strategy year-end start planned

Discussing the implementation of a national tourism strategy are (from left) Tourism Industry Association chief executive Martin Snedden, Tourism Dunedin chairman Barry Timmings and Tourism Dunedin chief executive Hamish Saxton, in front of the Dunedin Railway Station yesterday. Photo by Linda Robertson.

Tourism Industry Association chief executive Martin Snedden was in Dunedin yesterday hosting a focus group for a dozen leaders within the visitor sector.

It was the eighth of eleven such sessions Mr Snedden will attend around New Zealand this month.

He wanted to ''pick the brains'' of key stakeholders within each region to determine the best process for implementing a national tourism strategy.

Such a plan had been tried unsuccessfully in the past, Mr Snedden said.

But an industry worth $23 billion a year and which provided 187,000 jobs needed to be aligned from the top, giving guidance to private operators as well as tourism groups and organisations.

''The visitor industry is huge, but by its nature it is fragmented - there is no cohesive strategy. It's not about micromanagement, it's about providing an overarching strategic framework that allows cohesion to how we improve the quality of our visitor economy.''

The strategy would not restrict or bind operators, but rather give them direction in working for the best possible outcomes - both at a personal and community level.

It would take months to develop and would start to be implemented by the end of the year, Mr Snedden said.

''Once the key, top-level ideas are decided on, then implementation can start quite quickly.''

Tourism Dunedin chief executive Hamish Saxton said a national strategy was ''absolutely'' necessary and would benefit those involved in the Otago visitor sector.

He relished the opportunity to be consulted alongside other tourism leaders from throughout Otago.

''In the development of our own strategies it's important that we consider the alignment of that to what's happening at a national level. That's vitally important to be able to share a road map that we can place our own geographic and destinational themes on top of - it will be extremely helpful.''

Tourism Dunedin chairman Barry Timmings said it was encouraging to discover ''pretty strong parallels'' between Otago and national plans.

- rosie.manins@odt.co.nz