Tourism industry wants holidays 'Mondayised'

The tourism industry is calling on the next government to "Mondayise" the Waitangi Day and Anzac Day holidays to help the economy.

This is one of the recommendations in a report called Tourism Future 2011-14, being released today by the Tourism Industry Association.

Mondayising the holidays would mean people would get the Monday off, if the holiday falls on a weekend day.

The idea is not always popular with the business community because of the cost, but now the tourism industry says New Zealand needs to do it for the good of the country.

Tourism Industry Association policy manager Simon Wallace told TV ONE's AMP Business that tourism operators have told the association this year that they are keen on the idea.

"The tourism market has been a challenged market over the last one to two years and Mondayising Waitangi Day and Anzac Day was one of the options our operators were talking about in driving domestic visitation and getting more New Zealanders travelling around the country," Wallace said.

He said domestic tourism delivers $35 million every day to the regions "so if we can get more visitors into those regions we can really grow that spend by New Zealanders simply staying in their own country".

Many small businesses outside of tourism say the benefit to the economy of Mondayising public holidays would be negated by the impact on their business.

But Wallace said tourism businesses are largely Small and Medium Enterprises and those business are telling the association that impact would have been negated by being able to Mondayise Waitangi and Anzac day in the past.

He said laws restricting trading on public holidays also need to be reviewed.

Other recommendations

Other recommendations include extending the SmartGate system to more Australian centres firstly, and other destinations like Singapore and Malaysia in future.

The association says SmartGate, an automated clearance system available for New Zealand and Australian passport holders, is making travel easier.

The system is reducing processing times on arrival in Australia and New Zealand and is a major step towards a seamless border for travel on the busy trans-Tasman route, the association says.

The association also wants the next government to fast track a new cruise ship terminal in Auckland, saying the development of world class port facilities has been slow in the past three years.

It says cruising is one of the fastest growing sectors of the visitor industry, seasonally worth more than $3 million a day in foreign exchange earnings.

The association also says as a vital tourism gateway and destination, the rebuilding of Christchurch must be a priority for the government.

In 2010 the visitor industry generated an estimated $2.3 billion in expenditure to the Canterbury region and supported an estimated 22,800 jobs.

"The nature and timing of rebuild decisions will determine how quickly the region can recover with the visitor industry seen as a major catalyst for regeneration in the city," the report said.

The association is backing the national convention centre to be built in Auckland, saying it will boost New Zealand's economy by an estimated $90 million annually.

It will enable the visitor industry to target a whole new market that can't be accommodated by existing conference facilities.

The association also wants the next prime minister to take on the Tourism portfolio as John key has done.

Wallace said the tourism industry delivers $61 million a day to the economy and having political recognition "really helps to get that value through to local government and communities".

Source - tvnz.co.nz