The sustainability of New Zealand's tourism sector will be judged against 17 other countries as part of a United Nations project.
The University of Waikato's management school will host New Zealand's first Tourism Monitoring Observatory, which reports back to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation.
The Associate Professor and chair of the Department of Marketing, Asad Mohsin, said the research would initially focus on two small tourist towns, Raglan and Waitomo, but it was hoped to expand to other tourist centre over the next five years.
Doing the research in conjunction with the United Nations allowed them to see how tourism impacted the environment and sustainability globally, and to learn lessons from other countries' experiences, he said.
New Zealand is the 18th country to take part in the project, with China, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Jamaica, Greece, Croatia, Morocco and Indonesia already taking part.
The New Zealand project would involve senior university students conducting interviews with locals, tourists and tourism operators.
The initial focus would be on perceptions of tourism services in Raglan and Waitomo by visitors and residents.
The next inquiry would be into how tourism was affecting the local environment through increased demand on roads, carparks, water supply and sewage management.
