Pania's Pānui

The inaugural Taniwha Dragon Summit was a resounding success with existing relationships strengthened, new partnerships forged, and millions of dollars of business being done. We have already seen some new announcements on investments in Māori businesses made, and we can no doubt expect more in the future.

For those who are unable to be at Te Matatini this year, you can catch all the action on Māori Television, where the performances are being live streamed.

As always, if there is anything you need help with for your Māori tourism business, we are merely a phone call or email away.

Nga mihi, na,

Pania and the team at NZ Māori Tourism

PS - Is your Māori tourism experience listed on our website? If not, reply to this email and we'll get your business listed straight away.

Te Nama o te wiki (Number of the week)

International visitor spending grew 4 per cent to $10.1 billion in the year ended December 2016, according to the latest International Visitor Survey. Average spend per visitor has seen a small decrease. International visitors coming to New Zealand for a holiday spent the most in total for this period with a total spend of $6.4 billion, up 10 per cent compared to year ended December 2015.

Kei te mōhio rānei koe? (Did you know?)

The latest Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) this week show that tourism expenditure grew in most regions over the year to January 2017. The fastest growing region was Nelson, which increased 14 per cent to $344 million in the year ending January 2017, followed by West Coast (up 13 per cent to $495 million) and Otago (up 11 per cent to $3.5 billion).

Below are a selection of recent Instagram posts from around Aoteaora New Zealand using the hashtag #kiaora - we encourage manuhiri (visitors) to use #kiaora to showcase their experience with Māori tourism.

NZ Story Creative Collective Co-funding

At NZ Story, we seek to encourage the promotion of New Zealand businesses in international markets. We also recognise that creating video content can be expensive and not all businesses have the funds to tell their story.

As a result, we’re offering selected internationalising businesses a co-investment payment of up to 50% of the cost of producing a video (to a maximum value of NZ $7,500). Up to a total of 20 co-investment payments will be awarded between December 2016 and the end of June 2017.

Current round of applications close 28 Feb and another will follow.

To be eligible for a co-investment payment, businesses must meet the following criteria:
•   Be a registered New Zealand business
•   Have substantial New Zealand ownership, governance and full-time employees
•   Have been exporting for a minimum of 12 months at date of application
•   Be compliant with all New Zealand laws and relevant regulation
•   Be of good character and reputation
•   Not engage in any actions that risk bringing New Zealand into disrepute

Applications open for Great Rides funding

The sixth round of funding through the Maintaining the Quality of Great Rides Fund is now open.

The Maintaining the Quality of Great Rides Fund helps refine, improve and maintain completed sections of the Great Rides of Nga Haerenga, the New Zealand Cycle Trail.

Targeted at the individual Great Rides governance organisations, the fund is contestable and requires at least matching co-funding from the applicant.

Applications are open to Great Rides governance organisations and close on 31 March 2017. For more information and to apply, click here.

Training and development

Staff training and development is fundamental to business growth. It can help sales, save staff hours, create more efficient production methods, improve technical systems and more.

Learn about some of the options available for your staff to develop skills, as well as grow or improve your business.

Business Calendar

Use this tool to quickly find opportunities, training, compliance dates and related tasks from across government. You can search by region, date, and category.

Nominations Open: Māori Business Leaders Awards

Nominations are invited from individuals, groups or organisations for The University of Auckland Aotearoa Māori Business Leaders Awards, which recognise and celebrate outstanding Māori excellence and success in business.

The awards, hosted by the University of Auckland Business School, are Aotearoa’s premier Māori business awards and nominations close on 17 March.

The awards categories this year are:
For individuals
•   Outstanding Māori Business Leader Award
•   Māori Woman Business Leader Award
•   Young Māori Business Leader Award
•   Māori Entrepreneurial Leader Award
•   Dame Mira Szászy Māori Alumni Award
For organisations
•   Outstanding Māori Business Leadership Award

Nomination forms and further details can be found here. Winners will be announced at a dinner in Auckland on 12 May.

$600,000 of Study Grants available

QRC Tai Tokerau Resort College have made available $600,000 worth of study grants for New Zealand students wishing to enrol in April or July 2017. The offer exists to make a world class education accessible to anyone wanting to enter the Tourism and Hospitality Industry.

QRC Tai Tokerau provides a unique level of support, ensuring you have a perfect balance of independence while having the comforts of home life. Living in a Halls of Residence with your friends and fellow students, you will enjoy three meals a day, mentoring and guidance that promotes fun, aspiration in a productive study environment while living in a thriving tourist town. For more information, click here.

Do you know someone that needs an interpreter?

Language Line is a free service that can provide interpreters over the phone in 44 Languages.

To get an interpreter, any member of the public can call or visit an organisation that has access to this service, just state the language needed.

Language Line is available from Monday to Friday 9am – 6pm and Saturday 9am – 2pm.

In light of recent events organisations such as: Christchurch City Council; Earthquake Commission; NZ Police; New Zealand Red Cross or any of the other participating organisations have access to Language Line.

Nga Pānui (Notices) from members of NZ Māori Tourism

If you have an announcement you'd like here, please email amy@maoritourism.co.nz for it to be included in the next edition of Newsline. It can be anything from a job position, exhibition opening, videos or photos featuring your business, new Māori tourism products, etc.

Cultural ‘City to Cape’ Collection
TIME Unlimited Tours’ winning proposal for a ‘City to Cape Cultural Collection’ regional cluster is about creating cultural connectivity between local hosts & discerning visitors seeking a bespoke journey through Northland and Auckland. These two special regions behold the ultimate New Zealand story about our country’s origins. The cultural collection will offer unique itineraries to connect Northland’s rich history and cultural heritage of waka discovery through to integrating our traditions & modern living culture within Auckland’s own diverse regional spread. Once developed these itineraries will be matched to the three initial target markets of China, North & South Americas.

Tourism New Zealand
Travel sellers in the USA love hearing about New Zealand from the source. We are putting together a series of online presentations to North American based agents and sellers on a range of topics and we need industry help to showcase New Zealand.

The presentations will take place over 2017 and be webinar based so you can take part from your home or office. We will look after the technology side of things, we just need New Zealand based industry who are keen to take part. A list of topics and dates are listed below. If you are interested in showcasing New Zealand or have any questions, click here.

Tourism Ticker
Tourism Ticker is a new daily digital news and insight service for New Zealand's tourism sector. The Ticker's website will cover the issues, products, businesses and people operating in the industry. Created by two financial journalists recently returned from the UK, Bridget O'Connell and Paul Yandall, the Ticker is produced from Wanaka but has a national coverage. Contact info@tourismticker.com ph 0204 101 9179.