Wealth of experience flows to Maori tourism

Maori tourism in Aotearoa New Zealand has been strengthened significantly with the appointment of a long-serving tourism specialist to a newly-created strategic position.

Dawn Muir has worked for Tourism New Zealand for the last 15 years, serving in a variety of roles in this country and offshore, principally in North America.

She has most recently been manager of industry communications, a role which gave her responsibility for developing the highly-successful regional seminar programme. She has also reinforced communication between the national tourism marketing agency and the Maori tourism sector.

As of last month, Dawn has become a specialist facilitator for the New Zealand Maori Tourism Council, working from the head office of Te Puni Kokiri - the Ministry of Maori Development - in Wellington.

NZMTC chief executive Johnny Edmonds says the new role has been established as an outcome of the organisation’s strategic plan, which placed considerable emphasis on the need for the development of Maori tourism based on mutually beneficial partnerships.

Dawn Muir … bringing great experience to cultural tourism

“Dawn is absolutely the type of person we see as having the focus, networks and skills to assist in this regard,” Johnny says.

Meanwhile the New Zealand Maori Tourism Council is continuing to operate at a national level, represented by members elected by the Maori Regional Tourism Organisations.

The organisation was formally constituted as the NZMTC last October and the focus since then has been on the development of a strategic plan to cover the period to 2010.

The strategic plan outlines a list of actions, however Johnny says that at this time there is an emphasis on forming relations with other industry organisations, not only for the long-term benefit of Maori tourism, but for New Zealand tourism generally.