29 Apr Tiaki Promise
Responsible Travel Guidelines & Communication Program for Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Country: New Zealand
Lead Agency: Tourism New Zealand with 6 partner public & private sector organizations
Introduction to the Tiaki Promise
The Tiaki Promise was developed and launched in 2019 as a set of guiding principles to educate both visitors and locals to travel in a thoughtful and sensitive manner.
Tiaki in Maori (the indigenous language of Aotearoa – New Zealand), means to care for people and place. The program was designed to both encourage New Zealaders to step forward and travel more responsibility and also to engage with international visitors:
Like other effective responsible traveler messages, the Tiaki Promise doesn’t just inform but asks the traveler to be an active participant; turning the guiding principles into actions – applying them to their travel behavior to preserve and protect New Zealand’s unique nature and culture.We believe that all who live and travel here have a responsibility to look after our home.
Development of Program
The Tiaki Promise was a public and private sector initiative – demonstrating the importance of both government agencies, industry associations and tourism businesses. Seven organizations came together to create the Tiaki Promise. The National Tourism Organization; Tourism New Zealand, the national airline; Air New Zealand and a major tourism operator; Tourism Holdings Ltd, from the New Zealand Government; the Department of Conservation, and industry or public sector associations: Tourism Industry Aotearoa, Local Government New Zealand, and New Zealand Māori Tourism.
This partnership ensured broad adoption of the program on launch and was the foundation for a range of smart industry activations with industry partners including airlines, rental vehicle operators (such as a motorhome & skydiving operators – see below), and more.
Destination Organizations within New Zealand have also been engaged as partners – working with the Tiaki Promise partners on showcasing tourism businesses in their region who are active in regenerative projects including reforestation or predator control. See the Tourism Hamilton Waikato partnership program in Waitomo.
Tourism New Zealand helped lead and provides much of the funding for the Tiaki Promise’ marketing and communication programs. Despite this Tourism New Zealand remains a marketing focused agency. Unlike other National Tourism Offices it has limited responsibilities in destination management or sustainable tourism development.
Most of New Zealand’s 31 Regional Tourism Organizations (RTOs) have well developed Destination Management plans using a robust set of National Guidelines. However, most RTOs and their Local Government partners have little funding to implement these plans. This gap has been identified as a major weakness in New Zealand’s objectives for sustainable tourism (‘Towards 2025 – A Sustainable Growth Framework‘). As noted in our ‘Global Best Practices‘ – responsible traveler communications should be backed up by a real commitment to sustainable tourism action and investments.
