The tourism data landscape
New Zealand has a tourism data system that partially meets the needs of the wide constituency of users.
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The system has some strong elements, some elements where the quality can be improved, and there are important gaps that need to be filled. Some of these gaps have been obvious for some time, others have arisen from the more recent emergence of a wider range of strategic obligations, such as environmental and biodiversity regeneration, community, and cultural licence.
The importance of tourism data and the need to improve the tourism data ecosystem is highlighted in key strategic documents. For instance, the Tourism Industry Association (TIA)’s Tourism 2050 - A Blueprint for Impact identified ‘Power up Data and Research’ as one of its ten actions.
Tourism 2050(external link) — Tourism Industry Aotearoa
Tourism 2050 specifies that ‘a tourism industry supported by quality data and insight will be much more assured in taking the many strategic, commercial and operational decisions that are essential to it achieving the vision set out in the Blueprint’.
To support a tourism industry that has sustainability objectives, a spectrum of data is needed, including economic, environmental, community, visitor, and cultural dimensions. In recent times the core tourism data system has covered only a portion of the desired coverage, and has comprised of:
- International Travel and Migration. Funded by MBIE, delivered by Statistics NZ (Stats NZ)
- International Visitor Survey. Funded and managed by MBIE (in partnership with Stats NZ)
- Accommodation Data Programme. Funded and managed by MBIE
- Tourism Satellite Account. Funded by MBIE, delivered by Stats NZ
- Forecasts (paused). Previously funded and managed by MBIE
- Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates (paused). Funded by MBIE
- Monthly Unique Regional Population Estimates (MURPEs) (paused, under review). Experimental data funded by MBIE, delivered by Stats NZ
In addition, two surveys, the Views on Tourism: New Zealand (a partnership between Tourism New Zealand, the Department of Conservation and TIA) and Domestic Visitor Satisfaction (TIA) deliver data on community sentiment and domestic satisfaction.
For the TDLG, the key challenges to address in the tourism data system are twofold:
- Sustaining the existing data. Ensuring the continuation of the existing core datasets and increasing the quality of those is encouraged.
Core data and gaps
In recent times datasets have not been retained due to resourcing constraints. This is a concern for the TDLG and other stakeholders. In addition, traditional surveying methods are getting progressively more difficult, including surveys such as the IVS and ADP. As such, protecting and improving the existing datasets (including through innovation) is a key requirement and a priority for the TDLG. - Addressing data gaps. There are currently important data gaps including for domestic tourism, Māori tourism and sustainability indicators, and for better regional and sectoral data. There is also next- generation data that will increasingly be needed, particularly around the four well-beings and for measuring regenerative tourism. At one level, utilising big administrative datasets will be important for providing future tourism data, while at the other very site-specific measurements will be needed to track regenerative tourism. Increasing public data accessibility and usability are other issues to address. Neutral and credible provision of data is important, along with building the sector’s data capability; ensuring the value of the data is maximised. A further key consideration is the importance of stable funding arrangements for the core data to both ensure its retention and to enable development of the datasets in light of changing user needs.
