Documents released on Friday reveal the Prime Minister, who is also the Tourism Minister, received less than half of what he requested for tourism in this year's Budget.
The Budget papers show the Treasury advised against John Key's request for an extra $80 million a year for tourism initiatives.
The Treasury said the proposal's value for money was unknown because of a lack of robust evaluation of similar programmes in New Zealand and overseas.
The Budget eventually allocated tourism just under $40 million extra a year.
