Tourism industry unhappy that Aussies will get off paying proposed visitor levy

Tuesday, 24 July 2018

The tourism industry says there's a few holes in plans for a new visitor levy.

The tourism industry remains unimpressed that 1.5m Australian holidaymakers, by far our biggest market, will skip paying a proposed international visitor levy.

The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment is analysing 105 submissions on the levy, roughly half of them from local government, businesses and industry groups, before making a final policy announcement.

Major tourism groups are unhappy that Australians and Pacific Islanders - more than a third of our 3.7m international visitors last year - would be exempt from the $25 to $35 a head charge that was estimated to raise up to $80m annually.

Tourism Export Council chief executive Judy Chen said her members, many of them inbound tour operators, supported the levy but they wanted it paid by all international visitors and felt the proposed exemptions were too broad.

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'It leaves a large sum of collectible levy money on the table - around $37m if the levy was set at the lowest about of $25 per person.'

One of the arguments the Government put forward against levying Australians was that they were a more price-sensitive market, and the low cost of trans-Tasman travel meant they would be disproportionately impacted with a $30 levy adding 30 per cent to a $100 flight.

The Government has received more than 100 submissions over its proposal for an international visitor levy to help pay for tourism and conservation infrastructure.

Chen said that might be the case for short weekend trips. 'However, there's a whole bunch of Australians that come over on 10, 20, or 30 day tours, so the fee would become pretty insignificant percentage-wise.'

Tourism Industry Aotearoa members surveyed about the levy were also concerned about Australians not having to pay, but chief executive Chris Roberts said it appeared that trans-Tasman trade agreements precluded that.

This was unfortunate when New Zealanders faced a $66 passenger movement charge when leaving Australia, but the key difference was that Australians had to pay it too.

'You can't impose a charge on Australians when New Zealanders don't have to pay it.

'It means our single biggest market by a long way is not contributing to conservation and tourism infrastructure.'

A number of other 'silly' inconsistencies in the proposed levy needed fixing, said Roberts.

Airline and cruise ship crews were expected to pay, which was unfair because they were here to work rather than holiday, but visitors aboard private yachts and cargo ship crews were to be exempt because of claimed 'administrative' difficulties.

'Cruise ship crews, many of them don't even leave the vessel, so they're not having an impact on the Department of Conservation estate or infrastructure.'

Cruise ship crew members would have to pay the new tourist levy, but cargo ship crews and those arriving on private yachts would not.

Kiwis have to pay a $66 charge when flying out of Australia, but Aussies may well be exempt from a tourist levy when arriving here.

The plan is that most visitors will pay the levy via an online electronic travel authority (ETA) starting next year, and it would later be expanded to help do security screening of incoming passengers.

TIA favours delaying introduction of the levy and the ETA until 2020 to ensure it was not rushed or poorly implemented, which would have serious risks for New Zealand's reputation.

'The Government should not under estimate how big a job it will be to get information out to everyone who could be travelling to New Zealand.

'Canada had 18 months lead in to bringing in an ETA, but they still had hundreds of people turning up to flights who knew nothing about it,' said Roberts.

'There seems to be a hope that if you turn up at the airport and you haven't got an ETA, you will be able to sit down at a computer and fill it in, and that seems a bit overly optimistic.'

Chen agrees it will be a huge challenge educating overseas travel agents doing bookings for clients coming to New Zealand, and it would be a 'major nightmare' if passengers who forgot to complete an ETA were turned away from check ins.