Kia ora from New Zealand!
Here in Aotearoa, we have been very proud of our success in eliminating the Covid-19 virus; however, recent days has taught us a valuable lesson in that we cannot afford to drop our guard, with new cases popping up once more. I am confident we will beat it again.
Tourism has been hit incredibly hard in New Zealand. It was one of our country’s biggest export earner prior to the pandemic, requiring around 40,000 new workers by 2025 to keep up with the demand created by increasing international visitor numbers.
We remain positive that tourism will bounce back, be it 2 or 5 years from now. We know that New Zealand is on the bucket list for many people around the world. Therefore, tourism is still a crucial industry to be invested in; and now, more than ever, stimulating an interest in tourism education is a vital part of rebuilding our industry.
As the New Zealand director for GTTP, you can count on me to do my part.
In my day-to-day life, I am programme director for a government-funded initiative, ‘Go with Tourism’, which launched in 2019 to build New Zealand’s tourism workforce. Education was always an important element of our programme, but it will almost become our sole focus over the next few months. Of course, GTTP’s Passport to the World course will play a big role, too.
When New Zealand entered lockdown on 25 March 2020, many people were beginning to lose their jobs. Since this date, the education section on our website is our fourth most visited page! Additionally, we’ve had over 1,000 people click on the Passport to the World link on our website. We have big plans for advancing these figures in the future, so definitely watch this space.
Ngā mihi,
Matt Stenton, GTTP New Zealand director
