TOURISM - THE WORLD’S LARGEST INDUSTRY

During 2005 New Zealand welcomed over 2.2 million international visitors who spent $7.4 billion during their time here.

Tourism is New Zealand’s largest employer. Tourism directly and indirectly employs 10% of the work force. That is one in 10 jobs in New Zealand.    

It’s an exciting time for Travel & Tourism in New Zealand, with some major movies recently being made in our beautiful country and the successes of our sporting ambassadors, all boosting visitor numbers to New Zealand. All this has had a huge impact on raising New Zealand’s profile as a dynamic and exciting holiday option. That means more visitors, more money in the economy and even more jobs!

The World Tourism Organisation has picked the Asia Pacific Region to be the key growth area over the next twenty years, in fact by 2020, it suggests we could receive 25% of the world's visitors in this region. For New Zealand, by 2010, the Tourism Research Council predicts that we will receive over three million international visitors in a calendar year (Tourism New Zealand website).

Travel and Tourism are now the world’s largest and fastest growing industries, generating over US$2 trillion a year and employing over 112 million people...one in every 11 workers worldwide. What qualities do you need to be selected for a course? Motivation, enthusiasm, flexibility and a high degree of personal commitment are all prerequisites ... combined with the ability to absorb new information and a genuine desire to work with people.