Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive said climate change was an inescapable reality for the sector. Photo: RNZ/Tess Brunton
Tourism leaders are grappling with the future of their industry as the impacts and disruptions of climate change become more widely felt.
They met in Hamilton yesterday for the annual Tourism Summit Aotearoa, discussing climate change adaptation and innovation.
Excited and more hopeful, tourism leaders have been shaking free from the rubble of the past grim few years.
Tourism Summit Aotearoa was last held in person in 2020, and the industry embraced the opportunity to catch up again, with MC Jenny-May Clarkson having to resort to song to get people into their seats.
But once seated, the focus was on the challenges ahead.
Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Rebecca Ingram said it was an inescapable reality for the sector.
"Long haul travellers will increasingly question the sustainability of travelling to Aotearoa, and those who do choose to come here will be more aware of their footprint" - Rebecca Ingram
It was vital to do as much as they could to balance the flight to Aotearoa that international visitors must take, she said.
The realities of climate change were becoming more apparent, including the iconic West Coast glaciers retreating, Ingram said.
"One kilometre of retreat in the last 10 years. Yet I firmly believe we have opportunities here within these challenges.
"We see at TIA sustainability and regenerative being on the same spectrum. If sustainability asks how can we make tourism better, regenerative asks how can we make New Zealand better."
Tourism Adaptation Roadmap co-chair Laurissa Cooney said it had already been a rocky few years of extremes.
"This is very real for the tourism sector. We're already facing extreme weather events which have a direct impact on our business, on the infrastructure, our asset base that we need to invest in for the future to ensure our offering is still accessible, that people can still get to us, that our product is still going to be relevant in the future."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Tourism Minister Stuart Nash both spoke at Tourism Summit Aotearoa in Hamilton today. Photo: Photo: RNZ/Tess Brunton
Air New Zealand chief operational integrity and safety officer David Morgan said pre-Covid-19, 60 percent of tourism's emissions came from aviation.
"The airline goes through 138,000 litres an hour pre-Covid, and we'll be pretty much back up to that shortly."
Air New Zealand has committed to reaching a net zero carbon emissions target by 2050, using zero emissions aircraft and fleet renewal.
Sustainable aviation fuels had the potential to roughly halve their emissions, he said.
"It's for the existing fleet. We've got a 787 that's going to arrive in 18 months time. It's got general electric engines on it and it's got technology that was invented 15 years ago.
"We can't do anything other than put in non-fossil liquid fuels into the tanks to burn to obviously oppose the force of gravity."
Applications for the $54 million Innovation Programme for Tourism Recovery opened today, aiming to support projects that are sustainable and low carbon.
Tourism Minister Stuart Nash said belts had tightened since the pandemic started.
"I'm expecting some really innovative proposals to come forward, it's co-funding, got to be involved so people have got to have a bit of skin in the game.
"But the conversations that I've had up and down the motu is there is some people who are thinking really, really big in a way that I think will play into our brand and our values, but also deliver value for those who are coming over."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said climate change adaptation was a huge focus of the fund.
"The growth of the discerning consumer, the discerning tourist who wants to travel lightly in a depleted environment, who wants to offset their travel emissions, who wants to add to the natural beauty of the country and not take from it, does place upon us an imperative to provide a cleaner, greener tourism offering."