Dutch Travel Advisory is Balance- Tourism NZ says

Despite the posible negative impact in Tourism Industry in New Zealand.

The Tourism New Zealand still optumistic that this year more tourist will travel to New Zealand even the the United Nation  World  Tourism Organization said that International tourism will stagnate or decline  slightly in 2009.

 

"Our comment about the Dutch travel advisory is that is balanced", Cas Carter,TNZ GM for Corporate Communications told RePress.

She said "It talks about recent attacks on Dutch tourists but says that New zealand

is a relatively safe country from an international perspective,".

The New Zealand tourism industry expects visitor arrivals to be down around 10 per cent in the year ahead, compared with 2008. 

Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive George Hickton says Australia presents New Zealand’s best opportunity for growth as other key source markets suffer the fall-out of the crisis. 

"Australia will be a crucial market for us in 2009. With job losses and the weakening dollar, Australians are likely to favour short-haul holidays. New Zealand is still popular and good-value-for-money. 

"We also have good capacity on the Tasman route and are likely to see trans-Tasman airfares trending down as airlines try to fill seats." 

Tourism New Zealand has brought forward spending in the Australian market to help boost visitor arrivals over the summer and autumn seasons. It is also focused on maintaining a high profile in other key source markets including the US, UK and China. 

On the other hand, Tourism Industry Association Chief Executive Tim Cossar says the impacts of a downturn in visitor numbers will be felt differently across sectors and regions.