Enhancing financial and economic yield in tourism: division benchmarks for New Zealand tourism characteristic and tourism related industries 1999-2003

Abstract

Performance monitoring and benchmarking are important contributors to policy and planning processes. Tourism presents particular challenges as visitor expenditure supports a broad spectrum of commercial activity throughout hundreds of the economy’s industrial divisions. It has been difficult to establish financial performance benchmarks at divisional level because enterprise performance is generally confidential (unless required to be disclosed – e.g. as part of an obligation to list on a public exchange such as NZX). More easily identified alternatives are generally activity based (e.g. revenues, customer volumes, market share) and whilst useful they offer no insight into financial or economic performance. The benchmarking metrics in this report include Financial Yield (FY) and a variety of operating ratios based on revenue. These benchmarks represent the consolidated financial performance of enterprise business units within New Zealand Tourism’s characteristic and related industries. They reflect the degree to which divisions generate wealth (Financial Yield) and report the operating parameters associated with that performance.