Taking a hike: Why walking tourism is such a big deal

Saturday, 7 July 2018

Peak season beds in Milford Track huts sold out in minutes when bookings opened last month, but shorter walks are also hugely popular with overseas visitors

When summer bookings opened for the Great Walks, the Department of Conservation raked in nearly $5 million in hut fees in just two weeks, and peak time beds on the Milford track sold out in minutes.

The scamble to experience our wilderness highlights the fact that walking is big business for the tourism sector.

Almost threequarters of holiday visitors go walking, whether it's a short stroll through the bush or a hard-out hike in the back country.

According to Mountain Safety Council data, the number of overseas trampers on overnight trips or walks of more than three hours has increased by a third since 2014, to almost 603,000.

* Putting a price on tourism on conservation land

The popularity of certain walking tracks means those wanting solitude are having to travel further into the back country to find it.

* Foreigners to pay double on four great walks

* Our Great Outdoors: 5 deaths, 500 rescues, 4000 tramping injuries every year**

It's an international trend: Australia heads the list of top 10 tramping countries, followed by America, China and Britain.

Last year a record 1.75m overseas tourists visited our national parks, and DOC director general Lou Sanson puts that down to the desire to reconnect with nature as the move to urban living explodes.

He said the decision to double hut fees to $130-$140 a night for overseas visitors on the Milford, Abel Tasman, Kepler and Routeburn Great Walks helped generate an extra $1.7m in revenue after bookings opened last month, and did not appear to have dented demand.

REDUCING THE FOOT SLOG

Although the nine Great Walks are our 'glamour' tracks, the vast majority of tourists do short walks, and tourism businesses have taken that on board.

New Zealand Walking Tours, an offshoot of longtime operator Active Adventures, caters for tourists who want less arduous treks combined with other activities, such as winery visits.

Chief executive Michelle Trapski said the shorter trips on gentler terrain lined up with future travel trends as the population aged.

Staff regularly checked with clients in the months before arrival to make sure they had the right gear and were in the right shape.

'So that walking is not just wandering around the harbour in your city in America.

So many people are walking to the Blue Pools near Haast Pass, DOC plans to extend the track and shift the car park to avoid them crossing the State Highway.

'But we've been mindful not to dilute our Active Adventures tours either. We're ageing in a lot better shape that ever, so most of our clients are 50-plus, a lot are in their 60s and up to 70, and their fitness levels are quite phenomenal.'

An upmarket lodge planned for the Fiordland National Park will also target active travellers wanting something more comfortable than a back-country hut.

Path New Zealand, set up by Abbe Hutchins, is seeking to lease DOC land halfway between Milford Sound and Te Anau for the 40-bed lodge.

Hutchins envisaged a 'hub and spoke' model where guests could do many of the nearby day walks.

'It could be tramping groups that prefer to come back and have a hot shower at the end of the day.

'The other group that are likely to want to use it are people who're short on time. It doesn't require you to spend three nights out in the wilderness, you can just go in and have a quick wilderness experience, but get the benefits that being in nature has.'

CROWDS IN THE WILDERNESS

What happens though, when walkers craving peace and quiet find themselves surrounded by others after the same thing?

Trapski said her walking groups of up to 10 people tried to avoid crowded places, but it was getting harder.

'We definitely take clients on the Tongariro Crossing because it's amazing, however we don't want to add to the congestion, so as and when we can, we look for alternatives.

'We attempt to be really self-sufficient and not to overly impact on freedom walkers.'

Visitors climbing Mt John above Lake Tekapo pass through Balmoral Station and the sheer numbers of walkers are causing headaches for the farm owners.

Ultimate Hikes runs guided walks on the Routeburn and Milford Tracks. Under their DOC concession they are limited to between 40 and 50 people a day, and accommodation is in privately owned huts.

Chief executive Noel Saxon said there were now a lot more freedom day walkers on the two Great Walks, and he'd like to see those people encouraged to use other tracks.

'The beauty of the Milford is that it only walks one way, so you don't run into anyone coming towards you, and that maintains the wilderness experience; whereas the Routeburn walks both ways so you do get a perception of a lot more traffic.'

More than 95,000 people walked to the Blue Pools near Makarora last summer, crossing the state highway to get from the car park to the track, and in response to the obvious safety hazard, DOC is having to move the car park across the road.

Sanson said that Kiwis just had to accept that iconic sites, such as Franz Josef Glacier, were our equivalent of the Eiffel Tower, and it was a matter of picking quiet times or going elsewhere.

But he is also an advocate of 'slow tourism', encouraging people to stay longer and really appreciate the landscape.

Social media posts of the Gertrude Saddle act as a magnet, but three tourists have died there in the last three years.

'In the Hokitika Gorge we're changing what was previously a 15-minute walk to a two to three-hour walk.'

DOWN ON THE FARM

Private landowners with walking tracks crossing their properties are also feeling the weight of numbers.

The Mt John walkway on Balmoral Station attracts about 100,000 people annually, a dramatic increase on 10 years ago.

Owner Andrew Simpson said the area could no longer be used for lambing because tourists constantly brought in lambs they assumed were orphaned, when they were just sleeping under a tussock while mum was grazing.

Although DOC did some track maintenance, there were no toilet facilities, and human faeces beside the track was a major problem. 'You go mustering and your dogs roll in it.'

The Walking Access Commission is the Crown entity responsible for public access to the outdoors and it received 300 submissions on a recent report about access to the South Island High Country.

Chief executive Eric Pyle fears more landowners will restrict access or halt it altogether if infrastructure does not keep pace with the increase in walkers.

THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST

Sanson said it was extremely difficult to counter the 'Instagram effect' when social media posts of spectacular scenery sent a wave of walkers into sometimes dangerous places.

The Gertrude Saddle in Fiordland was a case in point. Three tourists had died there over the past three years, virtually all in the same area of steep bluffs, despite warning signs.

''They may be prepared to get to the saddle, but they're not prepared when the whole thing fogs in, or we get rain, or they encounter snow.'

However, Mountain Safety Council chief executive Mike Daisley said Kiwis had more incidents than tourists, based on participation rates.

The council's just-released report, A Walk in the Park, analysed a decade's worth of tramping accidents and of the 57 fatalities, 32 were New Zealanders.

International visitors were more likely to die on a day or short walk, and those who needed rescuing were more commonly tramping on their own, or separated from their group.

On the Milford Track, overseas visitors were responsible for 60 per cent of search and rescue operations.

'But they make up 74 per cent of walkers, so Kiwis are substantially over-represented.'

The report also found that about a third of overseas trampers were making a return visit to New Zealand, 'so they're not total newbies', said Daisley.