The voice of New Zealand’s Tourism Industry

Today we learned about the voice of New Zealand tourism industry. this is a charitable trust in the private sector that works on the tourism industry. They had very spontaneous goals, one was to have a zero net carbon tourism industry by 2050. They are striving for a zero net carbon economy by raising awareness. 97% of businesses in New Zealand agree that sustainability. should have a role in their affairs. The program itself is not funded by the government and rather funded by touruism companies who pay a membership fee to this institution. The institution acts as the voice for this industry. They deal with the issues and are constantly trying to promote a more sustainable approach to the entire industry. They often work along side government to implement ideas and strategies when it comes to making policy on sustainability. Their vision is to lead the worlds most sustainable tourism industry while upholding the mana of Aotearoa New Zealand. I learned during the lecture that one third of New Zealand’s lands are held for conservation purposes. The original goals proposed by the government included an expected $41 billion in expenditure by 2025. However this goal did not have anything to do with sustainability and was rather based on growth. The voice of New Zealand’s tourism industry focused on a goal which provided two areas of priority. This included infrastructure and sustainability. The tourism’s industry model is closely related to the sustainable development goals proposed by the United Nations in 2017. The company is rather small with only about 20 employees. They made sure to hire a Maori individual to be a representative of this community on the board of the company. This way Maori values, ideas, and principals can be included in decision making a creating policy. As time goes on within the company they are shifting their approach on the environmental aspect by going from not only sustainability but to regeneration. One good way they manage this is to create more biodiversity which in turn is positive for the environment. Overall I was impressed by the company itself and their goals, It makes me feel like we should start doing the same back in the United States.