NZTRI

NEW ZEALAND TOURISM RESEARCH INSTITUTE (NZTRI)

Director
Professor Simon Milne

Deputy Director
Hamish Bremner

The NZTRI is a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional grouping of researchers, graduate students and industry leaders. The NZTRI is based at AUT and has four major objectives:

• To develop and disseminate research that enhances the performance and sustainability of the tourism industry and its related sectors.
• To explore the role of information and communication technologies in the tourism industry: as a tool to improve corporate performance, and as a way to improve community involvement in, and stakeholder understanding of, the industry.
• To develop tools that can assist in maximising the links between tourism and local economies, and which can also highlight environmental and social zones of conflict.
• To obtain funding from both the private and public sectors which can support high-end graduate study in areas of vital importance to tourism development in New Zealand and elsewhere.

NZTRI operates within a broad regional, national and global policy context. At the Auckland region level our focus is on assisting those who depend on, or are influenced by, tourism. Our aim is to achieve more sustainable forms of economic development and to highlight the role that tourism can play in enhancing urban quality of life for both visitor and resident alike. At the national level we reflect and respond to broader processes of economic change and need as they relate to tourism. While the national policy context is broad and complex, several key areas of policy provide a backdrop to our work:

• The NZ Tourism Strategy
• National Conservation Strategies (and the Resource Management Act)
• The NZ Tertiary Education Strategy
• The National Digital Strategy

Globally, NZTRI responds to the shifting priorities of donor agencies and multi-national organisations. Processes of globalization place immense pressure on localities and regions around the world. One of our major foci is the need to enhance the ability of the 'local' to survive and thrive in this 'global' context.

The Institute is currently involved in externally funded projects that focus on gaining knowledge about visitors to use in strategic planning and designing tools which communities and businesses can use themselves.

Visit the New Zealand Tourism Research Institute website.