A study of the foreign exchange earnings of the tourist industry, 1950-1959

Abstract

The aura of glamour and enjoyment that surrounds the tourist industry has tended to obscure its true economic significance. In his study of the tourists visiting New Zealand and their spending, the author has undertaken a partial economic study of one industry. But this industry is unique in its structure and this study presented unusual problems both in theory and practice. For this reason the standard tools of economic analysis may be applied specifically to the current volume of tourist traffic and spending only with caution. Chapter II contains a summary discussion of the economics of the tourist industry. Unfortunately, dependable economic studies of the tourist industry in New Zealand or overseas are very scares and incomplete. Only one facet of the New Zealand tourist industry has been studied in the following pages - namely the estimation of the effect of the tourist expenditure on the International Balance of Payments. Chapter II has briefly considered the Balance of Payments aspect in the wider context of the total economic effects of the tourist industry. Since receipts of foreign exchange through the tourist industry are due in the main to spending by overseas tourists, the number, type and spending habits of the tourists are of fundamental concern to an investigation of these receipts. The concept of the 'tourist' and the types of travellers that are excluded from this category is a vigorously debated issue. This variance of opinion is, often unwittingly, the root cause of much disagreement on the economic value of the industry. Readers should be forewarned that the definition of a tourist adopted herein is a deliberate departure from internationally recommended standards and possesses some novel features. Particular care has been taken to define accurately the concepts employed in this thesis with the aim of averting much of the muddled thinking that has marked recent treatises in New Zealand on the subject.