The major focus of the TSA is to identify and measure tourism expenditure on goods and services produced within the New Zealand economy.
From this, tourism’s direct contribution to GDP can be derived and compared with the contribution to GDP of other industries, such as agriculture or manufacturing.
Table 5 and figure 7 present tourism expenditure (or direct tourism demand) by type of product.
Table 5
Figure 7
Points to note from table 5 and figure 7:
For the year ended March 2009:
- Total tourism expenditure increased 1.1 percent, following an increase of 5.5 percent in 2008 and 5.2 percent in the previous year.
- Tourism expenditure on air passenger transport decreased 1.4 percent, with spending on retail sales of fuel and other automotive products increasing 6.8 percent.
Table 6 presents tourism expenditure by type of product and by type of tourist for the years ended March 2006–09. The tourism product ratio is the proportion of total supply (national production plus imports) of each product that is purchased by tourists. International tourism expenditure includes spending by foreign students studying in New Zealand for less than 12 months.
Table 6
Table 6 continued
Points to note from table 6:
- Household tourism expenditure increased by 3.1 percent in the March 2009 year, following an increase of 5.7 percent in the previous year.
- Between 2006 and 2009, household tourism spending increased 14.2 percent. Over the corresponding period total household final consumption expenditure (HCE) increased 14.3 percent.
- Growth in domestic household tourism expenditure in the March 2009 year was strongest in retail sales of fuel and other automotive products, up 7.3 percent ($115 million), while accommodation and food and beverage serving services were up 5.4 percent and 4.8 percent respectively from the previous year.
- Spending by international tourists in New Zealand fell 0.9 percent in the March 2009 year, following increases of 4.6 percent in the March 2008 year and 4.9 percent in the March 2007 year.
- International tourist expenditure on air passenger transport decreased 1.6 percent ($37 million) in the March 2009 year following increases of 8.4 percent and 7.2 percent in the March 2008 and 2007 years respectively.