Prime Minister and Tourism Minister of New Zealand John Key today released details of the NZ$ 158 million of additional funding for tourism announced in a pre-Budget speech earlier this week. As part of a larger internationally-focused growth package, the Government is investing significantly in tourism through Budget 2013. This will include NZ$ 28 million over four years to co-fund business innovation and growth initiatives in the sector.
“We want to support innovative ideas and projects that will create new opportunities and overcome barriers to growth in the tourism sector. We will be working with tourism businesses and the Tourism Industry Association and other groups to achieve this,” said Key.
He further added that, to that end, NZ will partner with the sector to offer a co-funding model to be called The Tourism Growth Partnership, with the Government contributing up to 50 per cent to each initiative. “This investment will help us capture the benefits from growing the value and number of visitors, while creating new jobs, higher growth and increased export earnings. We expect this fund will enable the tourism sector to respond to new market opportunities.”
The new funding will absorb and significantly expand the Tourism Strategy Implementation Fund, which is currently NZ$ 1.22 million per year.
