A new campaign backed by seven major tourism organisations is asking visitors to New Zealand to respect the country's nature and culture.
If it catches on, shocking headlines about freedom campers pooing on the street and tourist-caused car crashes may become a thing of the past.
Tiaki - Care for New Zealand was launched this afternoon by Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis and is backed by Air NZ, the Department of Conservation, Local Government NZ, NZ Maori Tourism, Tourism Holdings, Tourism Industry Aotearoa and Tourism NZ.
'Tiaki' means 'to care and protect' in Te Reo Māori, and the Tiaki Promise hopes to get a commitment from tourists to look after the places they visit.
Air NZ CEO Christopher Luxon says the Tiaki Promise is key to protecting one of Aotearoa's biggest industries.
"Tourism is New Zealand's highest value export and we've seen visitor numbers grow by a million in the past five years. At the same time, we've also seen a significant increase in domestic travel demand, growing our network alone by more than a third," says Mr Luxon.
"This represents an incredible opportunity for our country but it's important we take responsibility as an industry for managing this growth and protecting the things that make New Zealand so special."
A video explaining the initiative will be available on all Air NZ flights and free educational material will be available from all seven of its major supporters.
The resources will initially be available in English, Te Reo Māori, German and Chinese.
The Tiaki - Care for New Zealand initiative will extend to driver safety when a new campaign based around foreign travellers driving on NZ roads is released later this year.
Newshub.
