Mr Ensor was speaking at a Lake Wanaka tourism seminar on Thursday.
It included speakers from the TIA, Tourism New Zealand and the Ministry of Tourism.
Mr Ensor was also in Wanaka to hear tourism operators' views about the draft Mt Aspiring National Park management plan before writing a submission to the Department of Conservation.
Mr Ensor said the TIA was a member-funded industry organisation and was being taken seriously by the Government.
The TIA was also seeking more investment in marketing, infrastructure and bank liquidity.
But in the economic downturn, the Government wanted to hear a united voice and receive clear evidence of a return, Mr Ensor said.
The TIA could show that return.
It was a $21 billion industry, employing 1 in 10 people, earning $2 million every hour of the year, he said.
On a regional level, tourism operators should get involved in Doc and local government processes and back up their arguments with regional tourism statistics, available on ministry websites.
Common strengths of individual operators, regardless of the economic climate, were targeted marketing, adding value to products, reviewing long-term financial viability and staff performance, attracting the right staff, and having well thought-out price strategies, Mr Ensor said.
Employers should be asking what their staff were capable of doing and whether they had been allowed to reach their potential.
Staff should be expected to be knowledgeable and articulate about their employer's product and their region.
People were tempted to drop prices without assessing the impact on business, Mr Ensor said.
Dropping a $100 price to $90 looked like a 10% cut in profits, but if costs were $50, the $10 drop in price was actually a 20% cut in profit, he said.
• Lake Wanaka Tourism (LWT) chief executive James Helmore said the 25 tourism operators who attended the seminar represented a very good turnout.
LWT had 396 commercial business members, based in and around Wanaka.
About 100 LWT members were businesses primarily associated with providing core tourism-related activities and accommodation, Mr Helmore said.
Nearly every business in Wanaka, "even services, such as banks and petrol stations", gained benefits from visiting tourists and the money they spent, he said.
Many tourist-related businesses in Wanaka were run by owner-operators and were usually "very busy" running their core business, which might have influenced attendances.
