This is an HTML version of an attachment to the Official Information request 'Tourism Impact'.
Email thread between Stats NZ and MfE, ending 15 June 2017
From:
To:
Cc:

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section 9(2)(a)
Subject:
RE: IVS data for environmental reporting
Date:
Thursday, 15 June 2017 10:13:35 a.m.
Attachments:
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Withheld under  Whenever I’m outnumbered, I’ll come to you.   When/if we meet with 
 you guys could
section 9(2)(a) come over here.
That time is good.
Cheers
Withheld under 
section 9(2)(a)
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From: 
@mfe.govt.nz] 
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Sent: Thursday, 15 June 2017 10:01 AM
Withheld under  To: 
@stats.govt.nz>
section 9(2)(a) Cc: 
@mfe.govt.nz>
Subject: RE: IVS data for environmental reporting
How does 11am sound? Are you working at MfE on Friday or do you want me to come to Stats?
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Withheld under  That time suits 
 too.
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From: 
@stats.govt.nz] 
Sent: Thursday, 15 June 2017 9:29 a.m.
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Cc: 

Subject: RE: IVS data for environmental reporting
the 
Withheld under  Hi 
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I’m free all day except 10-10.30, as I’ve blocked out my day for QA and avoiding all
unnecessary meetings.under 
Some reflections below.
Cheers
Withheld under 
section 9(2)(a)
From: 
@mfe.govt.nz] 
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Sent: Thursday, 15 June 2017 8:43 AM
Withheld under  To: 
@stats.govt.nz>
section 9(2)(a) Cc: 
@mfe.govt.nz>; 
@mfe.govt.nz>
Subject: RE: IVS data for environmental reporting
Withheld under  Hi 
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Are either of you free to discuss this in person on Friday?

1. IVS – it looks like there is consensus that this is a no go. If this is the case, is it worth
contacting MBIE to get data customisation? Or should we rather go down the visitor
arrivals/regional ports track.   If what is currently output via NZ.Stat is a no go (and it isn’t
really given the purpose for which it was compiled), there may be little point in
contacting MBIE for further customisation unless we can be sure to request and receive
data that is fit for our purposes.  And I worry about how much time this would take.
2. Body of Evidence – would the IVS info even make the cut as BOE? I thought it was
strictly peer-reviewed articles at this stage?  Interesting question.  The IVS data that Stats
has used and output as part of Tourism Satellite Account is peer reviewed in a sense (i.e.
Stats has put it thru a QA for the purpose of using it as an input into the Tourism Satellite
Account).   What we may get from MBIE or its third party might not be peer reviewed
and require cleaning.
3. DOC data – great that 
 is working with DOC. It’d be good to get an update from his
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meeting yesterday. The concession data and hut bookings data is what we were
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envisioning to get out of the indicator “use of conservation land” which is assigned to
.
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Withheld under 
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From: 
@stats.govt.nz] 
Sent: Wednesday, 14 June 2017 10:58 a.m.
Withheld under 
section 9(2)(a)
To: 
Information 
Cc: 


Subject: RE: IVS data for environmental reporting
Just to clarify, MBIE regularly engage with the contracted survey provider so negotiations
wouldn’t be needed. It would be more a case of if MBIE can’t provide the granularity or
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customisation around this they would ask the third party to do so.
the 
Yes DOC has done work using IVS but I’m steering them back to their own data collection and
getting that in a shape and format that could be used for both their purposes and the wider
govt/industry.
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I’m meeting them again this afternoon and have been privy to concessionaire visitation data
(domestic and international combined). Also, the data they have from their online portal
(*https://booking.doc.govt.nz/) might be a good starting point given it collects the number of
people booking great walks, huts etc..and has a split between international and domestic
visitors.
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*Not all information collected is visible from the landing page.
B
From: 
 
Sent: Wednesday, 14 June 2017 10:46 AM
Withheld under 
section 9(2)(a) To: 
@stats.govt.nz>
Cc:
@mfe.govt.nz;
@mfe.govt.nz; 
@mfe.govt.nz
Subject: RE: IVS data for environmental reporting

Withheld under  Hi 
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Withheld under  Thanks for this info.  I tend to agree.  You not being a fan of the IVS for our measure/purpose
section 9(2)(a) aligns with 
’s advice to us.
We are short on time for this forthcoming report, and if MBIE contracted the survey collection to
a third party, I can’t imagine negotiations will occur quickly.
Our first port of call would have been DOC data, but it seems DOC itself is only disseminating
national park visits using IVS data.
As you say, administrative data (e.g. visitor arrivals and regional port) would provide for more
robust estimates, but provide a somewhat indirect measure of tourist pressures on the land
environment
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It sounds like something might eventuate from your work with DOC (as we know they collect
the info) and joining data insights that could enable us (the ER programme) to develop a better
indicator over time and incorporating time series.
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But for immediate purposes, we might be best to use the IVS information as part of our ‘body of
evidence’ approach that we use to help measure a topic where robust, high quality data is not yet
available.
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, how do you want to take this forward? 
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Cheers
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Information 
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From: 
 
Sent: Tuesday, 13 June 2017 8:12 PM
Official 
Withheld under  To: 
@stats.govt.nz>
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Cc: 
@mfe.govt.nz
the 
Subject: RE: IVS data for environmental reporting
Withheld under  Hi 
,
section 9(2)(a)
under 
In relation to the IVS, it may well be worth approaching MBIE (I have a contact if you’d like) to
see if they/there third party data collector could offer any additional insights or customisation.
That said, I’m not a huge fan of the IVS for such a measure/purpose and would favour
administrative based data for a more robust estimate.
As an aside, I am currently working with DOC to assist them in trying to value international
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tourist spend in national parks. In the process I am learning about what data DOC has on visitors
to huts, camp sites and great walks as well as visitation to concessionaires (operators) who run
businesses on the DOC estate as well as DOC visitor centres.
I think it would be worthwhile such an avenue is explored ahead of the IVS as DOC’s data
collection is set to be transformed with recent budget wins. I’m looking to influence that by way
of ensuring their various data insights are joined up, as opposed to operating in silos, and are
collecting both volume and value measures.

Happy to meet to discuss and look to broker some DOC engagement.
Withheld under 
section 9(2)(a)
From: 
 
Sent: Monday, 12 June 2017 4:48 PM
Withheld under 
section 9(2)(a) To: 
@stats.govt.nz>
Cc: 
@mfe.govt.nz; 
@mfe.govt.nz
Subject: IVS data for environmental reporting
Withheld under  Hi 
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Withheld under  Can you help?  (
 has pointed me in your direction)
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The Land team for environment reporting is proposing to develop an indicator for tourist
activities, as a pressure measure on the condition of the land environment.  The pressure topic we
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are reporting to is the wonderfully narrow ‘resource use and management and other human
activities’.
We are thinking, despite some data quality reservations, that the IVS could be used to:
-          Show the top attractions/activities (e.g. a national park, glacier, marae) that international
visitors visited, in a single year and/or a comparison over  years   
-          We would want to breakdown, for example, the national park visits to individual
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national parks (if cell counts permit)
-          Show the number of international visitors who visited a national park per year and, if
possible, per quarter to show seasonal effects
Being familiar with this survey, what is your advice?  What is possible given survey design and
sample limitations?  We don’t have to reach Tier 1 status with this.
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We’ve had a look at what is available via NZ Stats, but these tables don’t contain all the
the 
breakdowns we think we might need.  Therefore, do we need to approach MBIE, as the data
supplier, or do you guys have access to the underlying dataset?
Attached is our measure assessment template, and an email trail is below.
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Cheers
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section 9(2)(a)
Withheld under  Ok thanks 
.
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section 9(2)(a)
I’ll wait to hear back from you re. what StatsNZ can provide. I’m happy to contact MBIE if we
need to.
From a scientific perspective it would be good to explore the data for the time series available
(even if the methodology changed), but from a time constraint perspective I revised the initial
measure-assessment template to just include the 2016 snapshot.
But it would be good to have as much data as possible, and then we have the option of analysing





it as a snapshot or for a longer time series. 
Cheers
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section 9(2)(a)
Withheld under  Hi 
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I’ve attached the draft measure assessment template.
I’ve had a look on the MBIE site, and on their ‘data download’ page they have all the microdata
available to download as a ZIP file: http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/sectors-
industries/tourism/tourism-research-data/ivs/data-download
 (these are too big to send via
email)
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·
They have a activities csv which has the breakdown by individual national parks, but it’s
hard to interpret as they don’t have it split by year (the same way as on the stats portal),
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they only sort by “Survey Response ID”
·
There is another csv called IVSSurveyMainHeaders which break down the
SurveyResponseID by year  – perhaps we could cross reference the “SurveyResponseID”
for the 2016 data, and then use it to filter the activities csv.
What do you think?
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If you could follow up with StatsNZ to see if their portal has a national park breakdown, that’d be
much easier.
There is also a shared MBIE mailbox where we could ask for the data? I.e All 2016 data for
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activities participated in, including the sub groups (e.g. individual national parks).
the 
Happy to hear your thoughts.
Cheers
Withheld under 
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Environment Reporting - Land / Purongo Taiao Whenua
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Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa 
DDI +64 4
 | stats.govt.nz

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