Managing tourism without killing the golden goose.

Wednesday, 13 June 2018

Increasing prices for activities such as the Great Walks is a small step towards getting tourists to pay their way, but some countries are going for much more draconian measures.

Credit card company Visa has forecast that by 2025 more than 280 million households will be travelling internationally each year and that tourism growth carries a price.

In a recent report on coping with success, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) looked at ways of managing overcrowding, such as increasing prices, capping numbers, limiting access, and regulating accommodation.

Some countries have introduced tough measures to counter floods of visitors who overburden infrastructure, cause environmental damage and alienate residents upset at disruption to their daily lives.

In Peru, the government has imposed a limit of 2500 visitors a day to prevent further degradation of the Inca city Machu Picchu; France's Eiffel Tower has increased ticket prices 50 per cent to finance €300m worth of renovations; and a number of port cities overwhelmed by passengers from huge cruise ships have restricted their numbers.

* Foreigners to pay double on four of New Zealand's great walks

Akaroa is preparing for more than 281,000 cruise ship passengers and crew in the coming season and some residents have lobbied for an end of 'two ship' days to avoid overcrowding.

* Te Papa quietly shelves report into charging international tourists**

New Zealand's problems are far less acute by comparison, but we are also taking steps to mitigate the negative impact of tourist numbers.

Those numbers are expected to top 5 million annually by 2024, and the Department of Conservation recently announced plans to double the price for visitors doing four of our Great Walks.

The WTTC report recommended taking into account the 'carrying capacity' of a destination – the maximum number of people that may visit at the same time without causing destruction of the physical, economic and social cultural environment, or an unacceptable decrease in visitors' satisfaction.

Improving cell phone and internet coverage in Fiordland would provide high tech solutions to manage car parking at Milford Sound.

Milford Sound is well on the way to welcoming a million visitors a year, and whether controls on numbers are needed will be part of a project looking at ways of addressing community concerns about peak season pressures and road safety.

Milford Sound Tourism owns and manages tourism infrastructure such as the wharves, parking, and toilets, but general manager Tim Holland said they were a long way off full capacity.

Last summer cruises carried 5571 people on their busiest day and total passenger capacity was close to double that, but car parking was a problem at peak times.

Holland said improving data connections could eventually allow visitors to book a parking space in advance, and government agencies were working on a business case for that.

Tourism New Zealand chief executive Stephen England-Hall is keen on using new technology to ease overcrowding, and he said providing advance information about car parking was a case in point.

Auckland Art Gallery is one of three museums and galleries charging tourists an entry fee.

'It gets a bit uncomfortable for locals and visitors if they're really excited to have a crack at something, but then they cannot get a car park, or there's so many people there that it actually has ruined the experience for them.'

England-Hall does not believe we are anywhere near having to limit tourist volumes, and said it was important to see our country through the eyes of tourists who did not regard our popular destinations as overcrowded.

'The worst thing you can do is judge your customers' behaviour based on your own …as New Zealanders we talk about tourists as if we know them, but we don't, this is our home so our experiences or expectations are quite different.'

Overseas tourist attractions are also managing visitor flows by encouraging people to come at quieter times by varying prices during the day as well as during high and low seasons.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA) chief executive Chris Roberts said this kind of dynamic pricing was already common with hotels and airlines, and there was a lot of talk about adopting it for tourism activities as well.

Differential pricing for residents and tourists is also beginning to appear with Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland War Memorial Museum and the Waitangi National Trust all charging overseas visitor entry fees.

A survey of 37 galleries and museums in 2016 showed just over half their visitors were from overseas, and Roberts believes there is justification for charging tourists while keeping them free for local ratepayers who are funding them.

'Museums that want to retain free entry can start behind the scenes tours … people are prepared to pay $100 to go on [one of those].'

Roberts said the tourism industry had deliberately not set an annual visitor target, concentrating instead on maximising tourist spend which had increased by 46 per cent over the past four years, compared with a 35 per cent rise in international arrivals.

Bhutan requires visitors to spend at least US$200 a day but Roberts is wary of that management model and said there was a place for budget travellers.

'There are thousands of New Zealanders, myself included, who have spent time oversees making a few dollars go a very long way, so it;s a little bit unfair on the rest of the world to say we don't want these travellers coming here.'