The discipline of Tourism and New Zealand: gatekeeper of the

advantages

The concept of tourism has changed over the last few decades. Thirty years ago
tourism was predominantly experienced during the two weeks holiday employees
had during the summer period. Now tourism is much more of a 365 days activity
which consists of all sorts of activities varying from day’s outings to travelling to
the ends of the earth. One of those “ends” that has become an interesting
destination for tourists is New Zealand. In 2006 New Zealand was visited by
2.408.888 tourists (Tourism Satellite Account, 2006, p 11) and this number is
predicted to increase yearly by 4% (OECD, 2008, p 176). As New Zealand has
only around 4 million inhabitants, such an influx of visitors has a great impact on
the national environment and culture of society. The question arises if tourism is
predominantly to the advantage of New Zealand and therefore should be
stimulated or is it ultimately working against them? This essay will emphasize
the economic and socio-cultural advantages tourism has for New Zealand and
why New Zealanders can rely on the discipline of tourism as a respected
regulation authority in protecting the environmental and cultural heritage.
Collaboration between the tourism industry and the academic has the potential to
protect New Zealand from unwanted tourism effects.

The economic advantages tourism has for New Zealand is the fact that it is a
successful industry in terms of economics and employment. Statistics Satellite
Account (2007: page 4) indicated that tourists in New Zealand have been
spending over a $18 billion in 2006. This was an increase of 3.2% compared with
the year before. Tourism contributes $6.9 billion directly to the gross domestic
product which strengthens the general economy (Statistics Satellite Account:
2007 page 16). Tourism in New Zealand also employs over 100.000 fulltime
equivalent employees which is 5.9% of the total employment (New Zealand
statistics: 2007 page 19). Although the increase of the last year was lower
compared to the years before tourism supports a large number of families to pay
their bills. Pike (2007: page 16) describes the positive influence tourism has had

1
on the Rotorua community as traditional local industries (farming and forestry)
were unable to meet de demand for jobs to the local younger people.

Tourism also supports New Zealand in having access to an adequate

infrastructure and healthcare facilities. As New Zealand has on average 15
inhabitants living per km2 (Countries of the world), creating these facilities is a
costly issue. If the 1.8 million working population has to financially support all
thisl, the tax need to be increased. As these measures are always unpopular for
the native inhabitants, inviting tourists to invest their holiday in your country will
bring in large amount of state income which can be invested into particular issues
that are of great importance to the people of New Zealand. By doing so visitors
help to sustain economic stability for New Zealand which is profitable for all
people?

Tourism in New Zealand has also advantages for the social-cultural environment.
Its positive impact can be evaluated in the influence tourism has on local
communities and the influence on revaluating the importance of culture and
traditions. This provides inhabitants of New Zealand not only to receive but also
to educate the world

Tourism is strengthening communities is New Zealand. As New Zealand has a

low population density, each town of cluster of villages heavily depends on their
fellow community members in maintaining their way of living. Seasonal festivals
increase this sense of belonging to a particular community. As festivals often
share some of the history of the local community it can be very interesting for
tourists to participate in this and learn some of the cultural heritage of that
particular part of the country. The attention tourists have for these festivals often
encouraged communities to present themselves at their best and this increases
their local pride and confidence in their society. An example of this is the
wildfoods festival in Hokitika which attracts yearly around 15.000 visitors to the
area.

2
Tourism helps inhabitants of New Zealand to value the uniqueness of their
country. As the Department of Conservation controls the environmental sites the
beauty of creation becomes accessible to oversees visitors. In this sense New
Zealand has very much a niche market (Robinson & Novelli, 2005: p 4). The
spin off of this all is positive reports about New Zealand in foreign magazines.
On the other hand, the way New Zealand handles the preservation of the
environment is an example to other countries. Visitors will see this and are
stimulated to act likewise in their home land. A recent study in New Zealand
showed when tourists were given an education program combined with a unique
experience (swimming with dolphins) influenced the behaviour of the tourists as
the became more conscious of important environmental issues (Orams, 1997: p
304)

Tourist coming to New Zealand is confronted in many ways with a successful

multicultural society. New Zealand is a country which inhabits many cultures,
the original Maori culture and a western culture brought in during the 19th
century. Also New Zealand Is known for its large number of European
immigrants and inhabitants from pacific island groups as Samoa and Fiji. These
people live reasonably peacefully together as all of them have room for their own
customs but also share a commonality in the fact they all live in New Zealand.
The way the merging of those two cultures is handled by New Zealand is a
working model for the rest of the world. When tourists visit places where
traditional Maori culture is demonstrated in dance, art and living within a
western society it gives pride to the Maoris and stimulates to preserve their
indigenous culture by revitalize their cultural crafts and arts.

Of course there is also an opposition which suggests tourists visiting are to the
disadvantage to New Zealand. They stress the fact that inviting oversees visitors
will contribute to the loss of the cultural heritage for ,by for example, allowing
tourists in protected indigenous forestry and influence the national values as
making money becomes more a moral standard. The truth is that all previous
mentioned advantageous aspects in this essay can with no trouble be changed
into disadvantageous ones. It all depends on the colour of glasses in your
spectacles. A way to bring more clarity in the matter can be attained by creating

3
an objective body of knowledge that is able to investigate and provide
independent advice to the Ministry of tourism about the impact tourism has on
New Zealand. Stimulating Tourism as an objective academic discipline could
well be used to advise which strategies in tourism will be most successful for
New Zealand.

The academic concept of tourism has changed intensively over the last decades.
In the past, research in tourism was often part of other academic disciplines like
economics, business administration, marketing and sociology. As the tourism
industry has grown extensively over the last decades the research output in this
field has also increased. Hall et al (2004, p 9) mentions the fact that 77
international English journals were published in 2004 which included a
significant section on research in tourism. Significantly this is one of the three
key characteristics of an independent discipline. The other two are having
professorial positions in the university and “formal institutional structure of
academic associations and university departments” (Johnston, 1991: in Hall,
2004: p 8). With the boost in number of degree programs in tourism and the
increase in collaboration with other scientific disciplines the fact can not be
ignored it is invading important scholastic space (Hall 2004: p 17). Till recently
tourism was mainly influenced by the tourism industry and tourism as a social
practice. As industry and social practice have strong subjective economic and
political power aspects attached to them, the upcoming of tourism as an
independent academic discipline could well be used to objectively keep these
forces under control (Hall, 2004: p 17).

This essay clearly supports the opinion that tourism is to the advantage of New
Zealand. It is good for the economy and it supports the social and cultural
identity of New Zealand. It also points out that a stimulating tourism enables
New Zealand to have a positive influence on relevant world issues like living in
multicultural society and sustainable environmental management. As the
advantages are delicate and positioned on a fine line the government of New
Zealand needs to facilitate the academic development of the tourism discipline at
the universities. They can independently advise the ministry about which strategy

4
safe guards the economic, socio-cultural and environmental identity of New
Zealand.

Literature.

Countries of the world. Retrieved March 27, 2008 from:

http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/populations/ctydensity1.htm

Hall, C.M., Williams, A.M., & Lew, A. (2004). ‘Tourism: conceptualizations,

institutions, and issues.’ In A. Lew, M. Hall & A. Williams (Eds.), A
Companion to Tourism (pp. 3 – 19). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

OECD (2008). Tourism in OECD Countries 2008. Trends and Policies. Paris:
OECD.

Orams, M.B. (1997). ‘The effectiveness of environmental education: can we turn

tourists into “Greenies”?. Progress in Tourism and Hospitality Research, vol 3,
295-306).

Pike, S. (2007). A Tourism PhD Reflection. Tourism Review, Vol 58(1) page 16-
18

Robinson, M. & Novelli, M. (2005). ‘Niche tourism: an introduction.’ In M.

Novelli (ed), Niche tourism: Contemporary issue, trends and cases (pp. 1 – 11).
Oxford: Elsevier

Statistics Satellite Account. (2006). Wellington: Statistics New Zealand.