Outcomes 08
Click to download a full summary of the Ecotourism NZ Conference outcomes.
Opening Sessions
The Minister's session key areas:
• Environment
• Offshore marketing
• Tourism research
• Maori tourism
• Capability and workforce issues
Time to raise the bar on environmental, social and cultural performance.
Certification
Aim to have one NZ-wide certification standard
Aim to have one NZ-wide certification standard
Generally seems to be approval of new standards however questions on:
- Where is Kaitiakitanga & Manaakitanga and other cultural elements in the new environ standards
- How will Qualmark fit with other certification standards such as Green Globe?
- What is the evidence that certification impacts the bottom line?
- Acknowledging the unique elements of ecotourism such as interpretation and guiding
- How will it differentiate between mainstream tourism and ecotourism?
Concessions
- DoC objective to enable business opportunities to occur on DoC land
- Significant Changes announced at TIANZ on the allocation of concessions
- Favours well performing businesses, involves compulsory Qualmark certification for the life of concession & to continually perform
- Now 15 to 20 year leases
- Rigorous review process approx. every 5 years
- Aim to build long-term partnerships with high performing operations
Feedback from new concessions policy:
- Generally positive
- Simplifying process
- Process needs strong enforcement to protect the integrity of the system
- Some questions on compulsory Qualmark certification
- Acknowledging the potential impact of competing uses of our environment (e.g. for the West Coast mining and dairying)
- On-going communication is key between DoC & concessionaire
