Tourism chief leaves a legacy

BY NICK CHURCHOUSE

After 10 years in the job, Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton has no regrets about the direction in which he took the organisation when he assumed control.

George Hickton Tourism New Zealand chief executive, outgoing. Lives in Wellington. Signing off from the longest job he has ever held does not necessarily mean putting your feet up.

Mr Hickton describes his regular annual medical checkup as like seeing his old Plunket book going backwards - being fit and healthy is not something to be taken for granted at 64.

"The clock is ticking."

Walking the The Hollyford Track and cycling the Otago Rail Trail will fill December, Christmas is in Raumati and after that he wants to do a year in the northern hemisphere with his wife.

He has spent a decade mimicking Oliver Twist, constantly pushing and angling for more - more budget, more tourists, more profile.

Now he does not want any more.

As the chief executive of Tourism New Zealand pops his remaining business cards in the bin, hands over his security card and punches the ground floor elevator button from their Wellington offices two weeks tomorrow, the photos, posters and awards on the walls he passes might as well be mirrors.

George Hickton has reflected New Zealand's image in the world's view for ten years, and headed a team that polished that reflection from a grimy confused smudge.

New Zealand's tourism campaign 100% Pure turned 10 years old this year, and Mr Hickton remembers the murky beginnings of what has become the world's most successful tourism brand.

"This place was a mess," he says, referring to what was then the New Zealand Tourism Board.

A chaotic political shambles of alleged misappropriation of Tourism Board money, political backstabbing, swirled in with bigwigs like adman Kevin Roberts, Jenny Shipley and Saatchi and Saatchi.

The top brass got fired and Mr Hickton, dubbed Mr Fix-It, stepped into the breach - the Tourism Board had been on the front page of the Sunday Star Times for weeks.

"This place was beaten up. Everybody thought we were stuffed. This place had lost the confidence of the tourism industry and the Government, and we were given six months to come up with a global brand."

It took three years to convince the industry and the Government of the campaign's longevity, largely because the Tourism Board was seen as spineless.

"The Government was saying they weren't sure if they wanted to go back to this clean, green thing. The industry was concerned whether we would hold the course on this thing."

Mr Hickton asked for a little trust. It was a big call at the time, with the industry still hurting from the Asian crisis during which the lucrative Korean tourism market self-destructed. Then he told them they were not getting any more public money.

Joint-venture advertising campaigns, the norm at the time, were canned. The annual $55 million tourism budget was for New Zealand as a whole, not you lot, Mr Hickton said.

"Nobody had taken the high ground and said it. The debate was that New Zealand didn't get any profile for itself out of the deal."

Picking Neil Finn's Don't Dream It's Over as the campaign jingle was a good start, and possibly the turning point for the tourism industry starting to believe in the national marketing team.

But it was a hard climb back from the depths of distrust and mismanagement.

Mr Hickton says he elbowed his way into every official trade trip then prime minister Helen Clark was going on, just to try to get her and the other mainstream industries to take tourism seriously.

"People just didn't get it, didn't see it and didn't recognise it as an exporter. The story had never really been told."

Knocking dairying off the top export earner perch in 2003 helped, in a way. With annual growth in international arrivals up at around 8-10 per cent, tourism suddenly became too big for its boots, and the government said no more money, Mr Hickton said.

Only recently, in the past two to three years, has the budget for selling Aotearoa to the world got a nudge, with an extra $14 million in 2006 and another $20 million announced two weeks ago.

Mr Hickton smiles at the fact the latest funding boost came while he is still in the top seat. It was the last box he wanted to tick.

The obvious legacy left by Mr Hickton is the ubiquitous 100% Pure campaign, speckling billboards and digital screens from San Francisco to Shanghai. Less obvious is the health of Tourism New Zealand as an organisation.

Mr Hickton's executives have never left. His top lieutenants were there in 1999. "Some might say that's too long, but it's an enormous amount of experience.

"We had to build a team, that was what needed fixing. By that measure, I can clearly say the organisation is in good health."

What happens when successor Kevin Bowler takes over in January is anyone's guess, but the fixing has clearly been done.

New Zealand's international positioning and brand awareness is almost synonymous with the tourism tag line, which makes the legacy fairly significant.

But not everyone agrees. Some say the brand is too prescriptive, too aspirational, and far too hard to live up to. There has been international exposure over air miles, pseudo- sustainable harvest practice in New Zealand's primary industries, and most recently the British Guardian newspaper saying the Kiwi promise is "greenwash", potentially the most damaging accusation of all.

Mr Hickton admits the pressure to perform is intense, and the more No 1 destination awards, responsible tourism accolades and most preferred holiday spot survey wins the country gets, the more of a target it becomes. However, he is unapologetic. "I've never felt I've oversold New Zealand."

Top awards for Whale Watch Kaikoura and Wellington YHA Hostel in the Responsible Tourism Awards in London last week illustrate that somebody overseas still believes in the message.

Mr Hickton says the scepticism about the nation's tourism brand is a good reminder. "We haven't oversold the country. But we can't expect that will always be the way. People that come here increasingly want to see evidence that we are moving further."

Domestic squabbling over the brand is pointless, Mr Hickton says. "What are we going to say? We aren't a scenic country? We don't have environmental aspirations? We aren't aiming high? We end up standing for nothing.

"We are just lucky that 10 years ago we came up with a brand that is more relevant now than it was then."

With New Zealand tourism's grand hurrah in less than two years at the Rugby World Cup, it seems a strange time to leave, and the speculation has been that there is more to it than simply rounding off at 10.

Mr Hickton does not counter suggestions that he was not "right- enough" for the new Government. "It's funny you say that because when Labour came in [after I started] they thought I was too [politically] right."

He says any change of government is tough, and any chief executive gets tarred with the previous administration's brush. "I don't think you can worry about that."

With his easy smile and gracious style, Mr Hickton has always been a popular boss, and with a bevy of public sector experience, the job offers have been numerous.

But he says a decade was always the goal and it is time for a break.

"I've been a chief executive for twenty years. You start to see yourself only in that role; I need to not see myself in that role. I'm taking some space.

"You don't get the chance to do that often. Someone else can come and do the Rugby World Cup, I'll go to the games."

Tomorrow:

Tourism NZ's new chief executive

Kevin Bowler.

- © Fairfax NZ News