Growing tourism numbers won't be done 'at any cost', minister says

The push for more international visitors will not come at any cost, the tourism and hospitality minister says.

The government wants visitor arrivals to return to pre-pandemic levels this year and to double the value of tourism exports over 10 years.

At a Scrutiny Week appearance before the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Committee, Louise Upston said she was aware of the discomfort caused by unmanaged growth.

"I want you to be reassured that I have been listening and I have heard it is not growth at any cost," she said.

"It is growth that is managed, that we invest in to grow, and then as the numbers grow, invest in managing that growth."

She has informed the Tourism New Zealand Board that they needed to consider social licence - whether communities were onboard with tourism - and encouraging travellers to spread throughout the regions while they attracted more visitors.

Visitor arrivals were sitting at 94 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

Earlier on Thursday, she announced Tourism New Zealand had received a $5 million government funding boost to attract more visitors, including a million for business events.

The funding was from the international visitor levy, which was introduced in 2019 to help mitigate visitor pressures on communities and conservation.

She believed there were challenges ahead, and said part of that was managing growth.

"When I sat before this committee last year, I was very direct about the (international visitor levy) investment of new spending being 80 percent on demand and 20 percent on supply. I wanted to see the numbers tracking towards our target for 2019," she said.

"We're tracking the way I had expected. That's why it's reduced to 60-40. And I expect then the year after would be 40-60. That's open for discussion."

The industry wanted a decisions around the levy and how it was spent to be open and transparent, and she said she had been.

But she acknowledged that there had been concerns that it was unclear where the funding was going and how the projects it funded were progressing.

"Fair cop, I take the feedback that it hasn't been easy enough for people to see where that (levy) investment has gone," she said.

"We've heard that feedback and we're working on how we can make that better and be more proactive with our communication."

She faced questions over why the international visitor levy was being partially spent on the baseline funding for two government agencies - including Tourism New Zealand - when people believed it was going towards pathways, bathrooms and other infrastructure visitors used.

Upston confirmed that when the visitor levy was nearly tripled to $100, they never said the new funding would all go towards new infrastructure or upgrades.

"People may have thought that, but there was no basis for that consideration," she said.

But she told the committee that as visitors numbers continued to grow she would be advocating for more of the funding to go towards new spending rather than baselines.

The government planned to release its full tourism policy statement by the end of June.

She was also asked about what she had done to support hospitality in the 2026 Budget.

For her, the biggest difference was bringing the Michelin Guide to New Zealand - which will launch at the end of the month.

She described it as like the Olympics for hospitality.

"It is really important for those across our hospitality sector to know that they can match any top restaurant around the world," she said.

But she believed profiling New Zealand food in Michelin star restaurants could also showcase the quality of the food and wine produced here and help to build overseas exports.