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Tourism growth: A ‘very serious investment’ in infrastructure needed, says mayor
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.
rnz
The chief executive of the Parliamentary Service is confident there will be enough room to accommodate the increased number of MPs and their staff coming into Parliament.
On current numbers, up to 131 MPs could be sitting in the Chamber following the election, brought on by a record overhang result.
Clerk of the House of Representatives Dr David Wilson told the Spinoff that currently the debating chamber had enough chairs to seat 124 MPs – including the Speaker of the House – and work was being done to accommodate more by altering the seating arrangement.
In a statement, Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said planning for a larger Parliament had been going for “some time”.
“Now that the election results have confirmed an increase to the number of members we are looking at several options.
“We are confident we will be able to accommodate all members within the Chamber.”
VNP / Phil Smith
Gonzalez-Montero said office accommodation for members and their staff would be “stretched” for a short time, but the new Members’ Building was only a few months away from “practical completion”.
That building – located behind Parliament – was due to be ready to occupy in April next year and had capacity to accommodate around 30 backbench MPs.
“All members should be in fit-for-purpose accommodation from that point,” Gonzalez-Montero said.
Following the 2023 election, 123 MPs sat in the Chamber – a record number at the time. That decreased to 122 following the resignation of National MP Judith Collins.
Collins held the seat of Papakura and stepped down in May and Parliament voted against holding a by-election because it was too close to the election.
The election result also meant high-ranking National Party MPs like Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith, Nicola Willis and Gerry Brownlee – Speaker of the House and an MP for 30 years – would likely not make it back into Parliament.
Only resigning or retiring MPs were permitted to give a valedictory speech meaning none of them would get the chance to give a valedictory statement.
Asked if their would be special allowances for valedictories, Wilson said in a statement that normally only MPs were allowed to speak in the House but the House could suspend its own rules or temporarily alter them.
“It could do so to allow former members to address the House.”
Wilson said no such arrangements could be made until the next Parliament opened and members sworn in.
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