The use of tourism as a driver of economic development is widely acknowledged. In New Zealand and internationally, tourism is used overtly as a mechanism by which governments are able to address a variety of national, regional and local development objectives. In this paper, we present a critique of recent responses in New Zealand to the task of guiding tourism development from a strategic and collaborative sustainable development perspective. As argued in this paper, the roles and responsibilities of government in tourism were reinvented during the 1980s and 1990s. These changes, inspired by a neo-liberal political ideology to deregulate the New Zealand economy and to restructure the state sector and local government, ultimately included the tourism sector. More recently, however, public sector policy initiatives indicate a shift towards a more pro-active role for the local state (local and regional government) in managing tourism development. This shift, informed by a New Regionalism policy framework, anticipates a devolved tourism planning mandate that fosters longer-term strategic and collaborative planning of the sector in order to enhance the contribution of tourism to sustainable community wellbeing. We reflect on the likely effectiveness of a devolved tourism planning mandate and interrogate the role and potential of tourism to contribute to regional development, as framed by the political philosophies of the New Regionalism.

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The relationship between tourism and migration that has resulted from increasing global mobility is a complex phenomenon. As part of that phenomenon, research has shown a strong connection between international education, particularly at the tertiary level, and tourism. In particular, international students have been found to have a strong impact on the tourism industry of their study country. This paper investigates a specific form of tourism in which international students are involved: Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) tourism. It details an initial conceptual understanding of the relationship between international students and VFR tourism. A conceptual framework is developed to help illustrate this relationship, highlight new avenues for research, and indicate how this relationship connects with the wider tourism-migration literature. The framework suggests that the interface between VFR tourism and international students can be explained through a number of aspects, two of which are addressed in the paper: VFR travel behaviour and host-guest dynamics in VFR tourism of international students. These aspects are analysed throughout the pre-, during, and post study periods. The paper sheds further light on emerging VFR related concepts -such as VFR tourism in a third place -as well as theories regarding the notion of hosts and guests in the modern mobile world. Suggestions for future research are also provided.

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