Advantage and Disadvantage of Tourism in New Zealand

Advantages and Disadvantages of tourism in New Zealand

1. Background:

People often pursuits the entertainment in their life as a mean to escape from the stressful and rapid working environment. Traveling is one of the means of entertaining that is most practiced and followed. As the tourism industries started to develop, scientists and researchers began to question the true definition of the word “tourism”. There have been many cases where researchers, whom speciality is not tourism, defined “tourism” in the way that fit their understanding. According to Tribe (2009), the explanation of tourism has the tendency to reduce into the field of economy, architecture, biology or communication which make the agreement of a clear definition more complicated. The United Nation World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has defined “tourism” in a political, commercial and normative ways:

“It comprises the activities of persons traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited” (Tribe, 2009)

Tribe (2009) states that this definition is widely adopted by several countries and organizations and has become the ‘official’ version for the terminology. A definition of tourist is also debated due to the swift change in the habit and pattern of tourist overtime (Tribe, 2009). More diverse ways of traveling and multi-purposes traveling have made it hard to classify and determine the meaning of tourism. Tribe (2009) has his own conclusion that tourist is people who “traveling or making a journey that starts and finishes in the same place” and the purpose of the trip (pleasure, interest, holiday or culture) is what defined a tourist.

Through the development of infrastructure and transportation, traveling becomes more accessible and affordable. Low and middle class workers can now reach further destinations with less money require. Trace back to the history, even when Egypt is still under the rule of Pharaoh, evidences of luxury lifestyle searching for relaxation and amusement were founded (Gyr, 2010). In the beginning of 19th century, with the rapid development of transportation system in Central Europe, tourism stepped into a new era where the mobility was significantly increased and new trend appeared with steam ship and railway routes (Gyr, 2010). Furthermore, the railway has allowed the middle-class to travel more frequently which opened the era of modern mass tourism (Gyr, 2010). From the post-war to the present period, tourism has become an important sector where many countries’ economy has to rely on due to the tourism boom caused by development of communication systems, transportation and infrastructure, urbanization and the rising affluence (Gyr, 2010).

Thing goes similar in New Zealand as well. During the Second World War, tourism in New Zealand faced a downfall where different restrictions were put on transportation system (McClure, 2010b). However, a prosperous period of tourism in this country start in the late 1980s because various factors for instance, the appearance of adrenaline thrills activities, development of eco-tourism and services (night-life service) and the advanced in marketing methods (McClure, 2010b). Compare to the number of visitor arrivals in 2010 (approximately 2.5 million), there has been an increase of nearly 1 million in six year period which is nearly 3.5 million arrivals in 2016 (Statistics New Zealand, 2016b). Although these number include more than just tourists, whom definition have been provided above, we can still see a huge leap in the quantity of visitors. These changes have brought New Zealand several opportunities in regard of the socio-culture, environment and especially the economy. According to Statistic New Zealand (2016a), 5.6 percent of GDP was directly generated by tourism and nearly 190 thousand people were employed for the industry. Eco-tourism also plays an important role in enhancing the local environment, heritage values and education (Hardy, Beeton, & Pearson, 2002). However, huge benefits come with considerable challenges. McClure (2010a) states that Tourism New Zealand has to face the competitive of many international tourist offices. Furthermore, being at the disadvantage of distance, the journey is inconvenient for many tourists because of high-cost airlines and many transits. Tourism also have some negative impacts on the environment such as the disturbance of wildlife, hazard introduction and physical damage (Cessford & Dingwall, 1998).

In the future, with the growing rate of 5.4 percent per year, New Zealand is expected to have 4.5 million visitors in 2022 (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, 2016). With the increase in number of tourists, there would be no doubt that different strategies and projects to manage tourism sustainable. Some of the tactics that have been used to control the behaviour of tourist are putting cap on tourist, limited the length of stay, restricted dangerous illegal equipment and required technology for environmental and safety reason (Eagles, McCool, & Haynes, 2002). Moreover, it is important that New Zealand has to keep it “100% Pure New Zealand” brand clean and green since it is the key factor for the success of the marketing strategy.

1. Research statement:

This research will investigate the advantages and disadvantages of tourism in order to improve the quality of tourism in New Zealand for the tourists as well as local communities.

1. Research questions

RSQ 1: What made the tourism industry become like today?

RSQ 2: What are the advantages of tourism in New Zealand?

RSQ 3: What are the disadvantages of tourism in New Zealand?

RSQ 4: How to manage tourism properly and efficiently?

1. Importance of the research:

The objectives of this research paper are to analyze the strong points and weaknesses of the current tourism managing system of New Zealand and also examine factors that lead to the tourism boom and issues that currently arise. Hence, based on this research, the government and other organization can carry out tourism-related projects in the future. Firstly, these projects will aim for the improvement of the quality of tourism, infrastructure and services where tourists can have better experienced and enjoyable time. Secondly, the tourism managing system of New Zealand has to ensure the safety of tourist and at the same time, preventing socio-conflict between the guests and the host communities. Finally, this research paper will show the importance of environment, mostly protected are in New Zealand, to the tourism industry and the need to protect it from the increase of ecological footprint, especially from tourists (Candrea & Ispas, 2009). The applications of the research will also not limit to only New Zealand but for other countries as well, where tourism is the key sector of it income. The advantages and disadvantages sections each have three sub-sections which are Economic effects, Socio-cultural effects and impact on environments. By dividing into smaller section, it will be easier for readers to get a hold of the idea and using these findings for further research.