Tourism Industry Transformation Plan
The Tourism Industry Transformation Plan (ITP) was a partnership with the tourism industry, Māori, unions, workers and government to transform tourism in Aotearoa to a more regenerative model.
Industry Transformation Plans (ITPs) took a high-intensity, high-engagement approach to industry policy, with the purpose of setting a transformative vision and action plan for key sectors in the New Zealand economy.
Tourism was selected for an ITP because of its significance to the New Zealand economy, and because the loss of international visitors as the result of COVID-19 gives us an opportunity to rebuild a more regenerative tourism system. Funding for the development of the Tourism ITP was included in the Tourism Communities: Support, Recovery and Re-set Plan.
Tourism Communities: Support, Recovery and Re-set Plan
The overarching objective of the Tourism ITP was to contribute to the building of a regenerative tourism system. A regenerative tourism system is one that leaves people, communities, and the environment better than before, and can be understood as an extension of sustainability.
The Tourism ITP took a phased approach
The issues identified relating to tourism in Aotearoa New Zealand have been the subject of extensive analysis and consultation. This has resulted in a valuable body of existing work, including:
New Zealand-Aotearoa Government Tourism Strategy [PDF, 1.1 MB]
- Tourism 2025 & Beyond(external link) — Tourism Industry Aotearoa
- Reports on the environmental impacts of tourism(external link) — Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment
Given this existing work, the Tourism ITP took the taken the opportunity to take a phased approach and focus energy on targeted actions required to deliver systemic change, rather than producing another stocktake of issues and challenges for the industry.
The first phase of the Tourism ITP focused on enabling Better Work for the tourism industry. To make any transformational shifts in the tourism system, a focus must be on the foundation of the system – people. Investment in those who work in tourism is fundamental to the achievement of other transformational shifts.
View more information on the Better Work phase of the ITP:
The second phase of the Tourism ITP focused on the environment and tourism. Ensuring the tourism industry protects and restores the environment is important because Aotearoa New Zealand’s natural environment is central to our attraction as a destination.
View more information on the Environment phase of the ITP:
In this section
Phase 1: Better Work
The first phase of the Tourism Industry Transformation Plan (ITP) focused on enabling Better Work for the tourism industry.
Phase 2: Environment
The second phase of the Tourism ITP focused on the environment and tourism.