Tourism minister says low-spending international visitors are out

Tuesday, 17 November 2020

New Zealanders expect a tourism sector that supports their communities and businesses, Tourism Minister Stuart Nash says.

New Tourism Minister Stuart Nash says the industry tourism will never return to how it was before the dramatic impact of Covid-19.

In his first public speech to more than 300 industry members at the annual tourism summit in Wellington on Tuesday, Nash said going back to “business as usual” or the world that existed before the pandemic was not an option.

“I firmly believe that the low-spending but high-cost tourist is not the future of our tourism industry.”

Nash said New Zealanders expected a tourism sector that supported their communities and businesses, and would not tolerate the worst of freedom-camping visitors who had in some cases abused our renowned hospitality.

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Tourism Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts says employment in the industry has stabilised but staffing is a major headache despite the closed borders.

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The minister said New Zealand's handling of the pandemic had boosted the country's international reputation. But high-spending visitors would come with high expectations, he said, so New Zealand needed to address problems such as congestion in national parks, environmental damage to natural attractions, and creaking local infrastructure.

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However, he also said New Zealanders should not be subsidising international visitors to the extent they had done in the recent past, and he has asked officials to come up with ways to avoid this in the future.

“Some of the costs – such as the impact on infrastructure and the environment – are currently shouldered by taxpayers and ratepayers when they don’t need to be.”

Nash also reiterated that the borders would not open until it was safe to do so. “The worst thing we could do would be to open the borders before we were ready and have tourists come in and bring Covid.”

Chris Roberts, the chief executive of Tourism Industry Aotearoa, which is hosting the summit, called for more targeted government support for viable, well-run businesses that could not survive without international visitors.

One option was to issue Kiwis with a travel card for use on weekdays in February and March when many operators traditionally made the profit that sustained them through winter.

“The industry is saying we can get through summer, but we’re really worried about what will happen after Waitangi Day,” Roberts said.

Nash said he was prepared to have a look at something like an app loaded with credit to encourage people to undertake tourism activities, but it was in the very early stages.

“If it’s going to come out at $1 billion, I’d think the Government would say ‘no’, but if it's going to come out at a cheaper price, let's have a look at it.”

Nash said the tourism industry had so far received an estimated $1.8b in wage subsidies, and operators had also drawn down about $285 million in interest-free loans under the cashflow loan scheme administered by Inland Revenue.

Free business advice had also helped about 1300 tourism businesses to date.

Roberts said almost half of the 318 businesses that responded to a recent Tourism Industry Aotearoa survey had sharply reduced in size, and 20 per cent had sold assets to stay afloat.

Roberts said employment had stabilised but staffing was a major headache despite the closed borders.

Ahead of the usually busy summer season, 60 per cent of employers had tried to employ extra staff over the past three months, with 45 per cent finding it difficult to find suitable candidates because New Zealanders were unwilling to take jobs that were not full-time and permanent.