"Destination Otepoti" is the Dunedin City Council’s blueprint for the recovery of the sector.
An 11-page summary report by Stafford Consulting said the strategy had been developed taking into consideration the significant impacts that Covid-19 had on the visitor economy regionally, nationally, and globally.
It recommended a collaborative approach with tourism-related businesses working together to achieve its recommendations.
These included continuing to develop Dunedin’s reputation as a creative city as one of six priority recommendations.
"With its long history associated with literature, art, museums, film and design, Dunedin needs to be more strongly recognised as one of New Zealand’s most creative cities," it said.
Possible ways to achieve this included an art bike trail, pop up and permanent "creative infrastructure", creative travel packages and expanded festivals.
Another priority was working in partnership with mana whenua, with the aim of highlighting Maori stories such as the Weller brothers’ whaling experiences and Taranaki iwi conscripted as prisoners to build facilities on the peninsula.
The "reset" of the council’s tourism marketing entity Dunedin Marketing was another priority, the report said.
"Importantly, business tourism, education tourism, and event tourism are seen to be working well, it is leisure tourism specifically that would benefit from a reset."
Reducing the carbon footprint of transportation, prioritising the natural world with "regenerative" tourism such as promoting community gardens and developing trail maintenance programmes, and developing an investment prospectus of the tourism sector were also recommended.
The report will feature in the Dunedin destination management plan (DDMP) workshop, which is due to be held next Wednesday.
The meeting will update attendees on the plan, including feedback received and a community research update.
It will also look to the future with a question and answer session and consideration of the next steps to be taken.
Data included in the report showed 2.84million people visited Dunedin in 2019, 25% of them from overseas.
This figure slipped to 2.10million in 2021, when just 1.2% of visitors were international.
In 2019, international visitors spent $69.4million in Dunedin and domestic visitors $331.7million.
In 2021, the international spend was $21.1million, compared with $373.4million for domestic visitors.
A council spokeswoman said "the Stafford report is not the Council’s plan for tourism recovery, but one foundation report that is currently being considered along with the Product Development Review, Food and Drink tourism approach work, and the current community research on Dunedin’s tourism future.
"All of this is being woven together, along with further input from visitor industry stakeholders during the Dunedin Destination Management Plan workshop next week, and will then be compiled into a draft plan."
