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Imagine if you considered yourself a guardian of every place you visit. You didn't just take what you wanted from a destination, but you proactively took steps to protect and preserve it so that future generations could enjoy it too. This is the premise behind Tiaki - Care for New Zealand, an initiative launched in 2018 by seven private and public sector organisations.
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GOOD Travel recently worked with Dr Julia Albrecht from the University of Otago to look into what prompted the development of Tiaki. We interviewed representatives from the seven organisations involved in Tiaki, as well as destination managers involved in similar initiatives globally in Iceland, Palau and Hawai’i island.
Tiaki is founded on the Māori concept of kaitiakitanga. The development of Tiaki - Care for New Zealand was therefore an opportunity to bring together individuals and their organisations to reaffirm what is important to Aotearoa and create a shared vision for the future of our country.
I absolutely would love a complete change of mindset for anybody that lives and travels in New Zealand in regards to respect for each other, for culture, for the environment, for animals. ~ Tourism Holdings Ltd.
Ask Dani for more here about meaning behind kaitiakitanga?
Tiaki was developed in part as a response to certain negative tourist behaviours. Tiaki seeks to inspire greater respect for the natural environment and local cultures as well as ensure visitor safety. While similar initiatives such as the Icelandic Pledge and Palau Pledge are primarily focused on international visitors, Tiaki is targeting both visitors and residents.
What we’d like is for people to change their behaviour and to do the right thing… at the end of the day, if we see an improvement in behaviour then we think we’ve done our job. ~ Tourism New Zealand.
The goal of behaviour change driving Tiaki is closely linked to the goal of education. Interviewees described how visitors do not intentionally seek to have a negative impact on the places they visit. However, when travellers lack information about how to behave responsibly in a new environment or culture, then this can result in inappropriate behaviours and associated negative impacts.
Some interviewees believed that behaviour change would therefore be a direct consequence of increased information and education. However, other participants suggested that successfully changing behaviour is complex and Tiaki on its own is not sufficient to change visitor behaviour. Participants described Tiaki as an opportunity to create an overarching vision, which could be used as a framework to then develop other behaviour change initiatives that align with the pledge. The Kiwi Way campaign is one example of this: a co-branded campaign, which recent DOC research has demonstrated to have successfully influenced behaviour.
Skeptics might argue that Tiaki is just another marketing tool to attract more international visitors to New Zealand. However, participants involved in the development of Tiaki felt strongly that Tiaki had deliberately not been created for destination marketing purposes.
Tiaki is not a marketing campaign and it will never be a marketing campaign. We’re quite adamant on that. ~ Tourism New Zealand.
While destination marketing was not identified as key driving force behind Tiaki, participants involved in the Palau Pledge were openly using the Palau Pledge as a tool to promote Palau. Specifically, their goal is to market Palau to the responsible traveller market.
It was always our aim that it [the Palau Pledge] was going to be used as a tool to attract like-minded visitors. ~ Palau Pledge Co-founder.
While separating Tiaki from destination marketing initiatives might add weight to the purpose behind the initiative, evidence from Palau suggests that New Zealand might in fact benefit from using Tiaki for marketing purposes. The New Zealand-Aotearoa Government Tourism Strategy launched in May 2019 seeks to enrich New Zealand-Aotearoa through sustainable tourism growth. One indicator of success described in the strategy is to ensure that visitors have greater awareness of conservation and the importance of following best practice to protect our natural environment, cultural and historic heritage. If Tiaki were to become embedded into New Zealand’s destination marketing, visitors to New Zealand attracted because of Tiaki could be exactly the kind of visitors that New Zealand wants.
If you attract the right kind of visitor, wherever they’re from, and whatever their background, you know that they’re going to be more inclined to do the right thing by Palau’s environment and culture. ~ Palau Pledge Co-founder.
New Zealand’s goal of attracting high-value visitors could also be enhanced by incorpoating Tiaki into our destination brand. Previous research (e.g. The Case for Responsible Travel, 2016) has frequently concluded that consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable brands and that sustainable travelers often spend more, stay longer and bring higher benefits to local communities including donating and volunteering (e.g. The 2016 Role of Sustainability in Travel & Tourism).
Further, the sustainable tourism market is growing. A recently released Booking.com report revealed that almost three quarters (72%) of travelers believe that people need to act now and make sustainable travel choices to save the planet for future generations.
Some of the visitors that come they’ve come because of the Pledge…. So the tour operators, they’re, so the Palau Pledge they’re very supportive of it because it’s bringing them more visitors that are attracted by the Pledge. So that’s good for them in a business sense. ~ Director, Bureau of Tourism, Palau.
In conclusion, Tiaki has the potential to unite destination management and destination marketing objectives by inspiring visitors and New Zealanders to protect Aotearoa for future generations. Tiaki is a mindset. Tiaki is a tool to positively influence behaviour. And Tiaki has the potential to become part of New Zealand’s destination brand, attracting visitors from the growing sustainable travel market who wish to leave a positive impact on the places they visit. New Zealand Māori Tourism Chief Executive Pania Tyson-Nathan says it best:
If you don’t want to come here and look after our place the way we want it looked after, then don’t come… I think our challenge as a sector is to attract people with similar values… I think it [Tiaki] could be [part of that]. I think what Tiaki does, is it invites people to participate. And, that’s really important to us as Māori actually, and that is at the heart of manaakitanga, that you are a guest here. Whether it’s my home, whether it’s our office, whether it’s our marae, whether it’s our country. You are a guest and as a guest in your country, I would be very respectful. Tiaki, I think is an invitation to participate.