Tourists have flooded back to Queenstown, but the mayor says they need support to pay for roads and pipes to cope with additional visitors. Photo: 123rf
The government will need to get its chequebook ready if it plans to welcome more tourists to our shores, the mayor of Queenstown says.
The new Minister for Economic Growth Nicola Willis has set her sights on a wealthier economy, and says attracting more tourists would help to make that happen.
"I want all tourists because, ultimately, it's not the government that decides how much a tourist spends when they come to New Zealand. That tourists will make that decision," she told RNZ.
"Our job is to make it easy for them to come in the door, easy for them to come to New Zealand, make this a really attractive destination and then when they get here, I've great faith in our tourism providers that they'll do everything that they can to get as many dollars out of those back pockets as possible."
Her plan was to smooth our tourist visa requirements, boost overseas marketing, examine how the international visitor levy should be spent, and work with airlines to ensure tourism continued to grow.
Minister for Economic Growth Nicola Willis Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Pre-Covid, communities in popular destinations including Queenstown were under pressure from the influx of visitors.
But Willis said communities wanted more people in employment and more cash in tills.
"There will be all sorts of arguments made against why people might not want more tourists in their town," she said.
"Our message is actually when we've got more tourists coming, more tourists spending, that's good for jobs, it's good for growth and it's good for the wealth of individual new Zealand families so that's what we're driving for."
The Queenstown Lakes district has more tourists visiting now than it did before the pandemic.
Queenstown Lakes Mayor Glyn Lewers. Photo: RNZ / Niva Chittock
Mayor Glyn Lewers said they were already delivering on the minister's goal.
"When I first started as the mayor, I think it was one resident night to every 30 visitor nights. It is now one to 47," he said.
"We support a big chunk of the visitor economy - the actual residents and the ratepayers here."
He was on board with more growth, but said tourism's social licence had taken a hit with the locals, and they needed support to pay for roads and pipes to cope with additional visitors.
"If that is to increase, I would expect a very serious investment in actually accommodating those visitors because a small ratepayer base can not sustainably keep supporting the tourism industry, especially when those GST receipts or the economic, financial growth that we create is sent up to Wellington," he said.
Willis said she wanted to work with communities to tackle those challenges.
Tourism is at about 82 percent of its pre-Covid visitor levels.
Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Rebecca Ingram said there were definitely opportunities to grow especially outside of the peak summer season.
"It's also important to ensure that we're investing in New Zealand to make sure that the growth that we do receive occurs in a balanced way," she said.
"When I talk about balance, what I'm talking about is the fact that we include economic, community and environmental considerations when thinking about how we want to grow."
But it was not just the tourism industry that needed to get on board with growth.
"Tourism funding has been a hot topic for many, many years and if we're wanting to really supercharge tourism in New Zealand, I think we should also be thinking about how we ensure that our communities and our local government partners have got the funds that they need to ensure that that growth is well planned for and well managed on the ground," she said.
Ingram said the industry was ready to roll up its sleeves and roll out the welcome mat, but it needed to be balanced and sustainable growth.
Willis did not rule out boosting Tourism New Zealand's funding, but said the first step would be examining how it was using its existing funding and if it was the best use of the funds.
The new Tourism and Hospitality Minister would be urgently engaging with the industry to figure out how to make her goal happen and which markets should be targeted, Willis said.
But she would like to see Chinese tourists back to pre-Covid levels - arrivals were sitting at 60 percent for the year to October.
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