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The recent announcement by the newly appointed Minister of Tourism, Stuart Nash, that he will ban the freedom to camp in vehicles that are not self-driving, has come as a cold bucket of reality for many in the tourism industry.
The minister is the first in a long time to take the many calls from across the country for the industry to move and readjust to be less damaging to New Zealand’s environment and less costly to taxpayers and taxpayers.
The minister made it very clear that he was looking for innovative ways to ensure that taxpayers and taxpayers do not continue to pay for the impact of tourism on infrastructure and the environment. He also made it clear that he was not closing New Zealand to those tourists who were not wealthy, but will not be the target market and that every tourist coming to New Zealand will pay for the New Zealand experience.
For decades New Zealanders have complained about tourism overload, human waste on walking trails, roadsides, and the deterioration of our special places by hordes of visitors. These people will appreciate the minister’s determination to take advantage of the absence of foreign tourists to make the changes that the industry has refused to contemplate.
Until now, no one wanted to explain to taxpayers why they should fund essential infrastructure for the exploitative and damaging tourism industry above any other industry.
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Our district councils seem to lack the courage, common sense, or ability to tell the tourism industry to fund its own promotions.
When regional councils spend taxpayer money, it is generally to mitigate and control the adverse impacts of agriculture and other industries. When the government spends millions of taxpayer dollars monitoring and controlling the fishing industry, it is to ensure that fish stocks are protected from over-exploitation.
Only the tourism industry, it seems, assumes the right to dip into taxpayers’ pockets for promotion and to meet the demand for essential infrastructure they create. It was even recently suggested that the government should issue all New Zealanders a credit card loaded with cash to spend on domestic tourism.
Stacy Squires / Stuff
Concerns about safety and public access led Christchurch City Council to close a beach parking lot popular with freedom campers.
While the previous government made an additional $ 5.5 million available for new tourism facilities with an increase from $ 12 million to $ 17.5 million to help pay for restrooms, parking lots, waste disposal and minor water projects, the money will come from an under-spent fund for the development of high-quality visitor attractions.
That funding decision recognized the fact that payment for tourism projects was far beyond the resources of local communities. Many smaller district councils struggle to provide essential infrastructure for their taxpayers, much less massive increases for an industry that brings in few additional fees to pay for them.
It has long been necessary to impose urgent and effective restrictions on the tourism industry to protect New Zealand from the ravages of visiting hordes while there is still some of our wild and special places to protect.
Tourism Minister Stuart Nash says it’s time to refocus the industry away from backpackers and those in cheap vans.
An example of this is Matamata, where the Hobbiton set from the Lord of the Rings film series attracted increasing numbers of tourists before Covid. While some businesses, set up to take advantage of the situation, were doing well, others in the community were frustrated and angry. Increased traffic flows and excess visitors put pressure on existing infrastructure, from public toilets to car parking.
A visit to Milford Sound at the height of the summer tourist season will shock and sadden those unprepared for the spectacle of overcrowding in a once remote and beautiful location. In addition, in summer there are funeral processions of dangerous motorhome drivers on the roads.
Until now, those who warned that the lack of adequate infrastructure, particularly public toilets, was becoming a serious problem, were simply ignored by an industry totally focused on profit regardless of the damage to the environment and the risks to tourists. The Erebus disaster and the White Island tragedy are just two examples.
STUFF / Stuff.co.nz
If tourism is a winner for the country, why is the public paying for infrastructure? Tom O’Connor asks.
Tourism leaders will likely argue that tourism generates jobs and extra money that eventually flows into the country’s economy. This is far from the truth and we can say it of all industries. But other industries have not been demanding millions of dollars to support them.
Tourism is certainly important to our economy but, like the dairy industry, we need restrictions to balance the situation or we run the risk of irreparably damaging the very things tourists come to see here.
We also run the risk of dispossessing New Zealanders, whose heritage is being exploited by unabated tourism.
If there is a positive effect from the horrors of Covid-19, it is a unique opportunity to bring a much-needed restriction to the tourism industry while there are no visitors in the country. We have waited a long time for a minister of tourism with the courage to seize that opportunity.
