Enhancing financial and economic yield in tourism: summary report of the Yield Research Programme

Abstract

In recent years, ‘yield’ has become a central issue in tourism development with many operators and policy analysts now seeking ‘high yield’ tourism. Attempts to maximise yield have sometimes focussed on maximising volume (i.e. visitor numbers or revenue). But over time an increasing number of sector participants have come to appreciate that maximising volume is not necessarily maximising value – and nor does it necessarily lead to sustainable businesses. For that reason, discussions about yield are now encompassing the concepts of value-added, net benefit and measures of sustainability. This paper provides a high level summary of the key findings of the Yield Research Programme, with the full suite of research findings being available on the Ministry of Tourism and Lincoln University websites: www.tourismresearch.govt.nz and www.lincoln.ac.nz.