Tourism worries Kiwis more than Aussies
More than 40 per cent of New Zealanders believe international visitors are putting too much pressure on their country, compared with just a quarter of Australians.
And it’s not just foreigners we’re worried about – one in five believe domestic visitors are having an adverse impact in some places.
That’s according to a new survey by research company Angus and Associates, which surveyed 600 travellers from each country, for a total of 1200 respondents. Angus plans to repeat this survey on a quarterly basis.
Although the vast majority of all respondents agreed international tourism was good for their countries, but there was a marked difference when it came to the negative impact.
Forty-four per cent of Kiwis said international visitors were putting too much pressure on the country as a whole, while 30 per cent said the same about their home region.
This compared with 24 per cent and 20 per cent of Australians polled on the same questions.
Angus and Associates managing director Cristine Angus said it was important that efforts to mitigate the impact of tourism were continued to maintain community support for the industry.
‘‘Taken together, these findings suggest that, while New Zealanders appreciate the value of inbound tourism, and welcome international visitors in the spirit of manaakitanga [hospitality], tourism’s social licence may be tested by further international growth.’’
New Zealanders’ negativity about tourism is higher than that revealed in the industry’s March ‘‘mood of the nation’’ industry survey, where it sat at 35 per cent.
The Angus research said Australians did not appear to discriminate between inbound and domestic tourism.
Kiwis were much more likely to attribute adverse impacts to overseas visitors, but about a fifth believed that domestic visitors were also having something of an impact.