Wellington Chamber Welcomes Government’s New Tourism Funding
The Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce has welcomed the funding boost for tourism, which is to be provided for in
next week’s budget, and urged the Wellington tourism sector to take advantage of the increased expenditure to attract
more international visitors.
“There is huge potential to increase visitor numbers to New Zealand and government funding promoting New Zealand
internationally is money well spent,” said Chamber CEO Charles Finny.
“Tourism is a vitally important part of New Zealand’s export sector. It is our largest foreign exchange earner and
employs one in ten New Zealanders. Yet it has far from reached its potential in terms of the numbers we could be
attracting.
“Targeted funding to promote New Zealand offshore, develop international tourism markets and grow visitor numbers is an
area of government spending which has our full support.
“Wellington is one of the fastest growing visitor destinations in the country and the tourism sector is increasingly
important for this region. Yet most of Wellington’s visitor growth, relative to the country as a whole, has been in the
domestic market.
“We are pleased with the work that Positively Wellington Tourism has done with the government to establish the new joint
venture initiatives and the focus it is putting into the Australian market.
“We hope the Wellington tourism sector can use the increased promotional funding to increase the region’s share of
international visitor numbers,” Mr Finny concluded.
ENDS