Council working to mitigate negative attitude to tourists
NEGATIVE perceptions of international tourists come as no surprise to Queenstown’s mayor, who says freedom camping issues have skewed public opinion.
A Tourism Industry Aotearoacommissioned Mood of the Nation report found while the majority of New Zealanders viewed international tourism as a good thing, nearly 40% believed tourists put too much pressure on the country.
Queenstown and Auckland were considered as being under the most pressure.
Queenstown Lakes Mayor Jim Boult was not surprised by the report’s findings.
‘‘I suspect quite a significant part of the concern is on the freedom camping issue,’’ he said.
‘‘There’s been a lot of negativity expressed by local folk, myself included.’’
But at the end of the day, Queenstown’s economy was based on tourism, he added.
If people wanted to earn from it, they had to accept international visitors.
‘‘The prime thing council can do is create new infrastructure in a timely fashion.’’
To do that, it needed central government funding, he said.
In a statement, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis said tourism was a big part of the economy and was ‘‘crucial for our regions’’ but the major growth over the past decade was starting to impact on local communities.
‘‘It’s good to see the latest Mood of the Nation report released last week shows that public support for tourism remains high and that public concern over growing visitor numbers has decreased a bit.’’
The Government was continuing to invest $25 million a year in the Tourism Infrastructure Fund, and tourism projects could also be funded through the Provincial Growth Fund, Mr Davis said.
The report found negative views of tourism pressure were driven by a perceived lack of infrastructure to support the growing number of tourists.
Personal experience and news about tourism in national media outlets had the most influence on perceptions about international tourists.
People from Otago tended to be the most negative about the impacts of international tourism, the report found.
In a statement, Destination Queenstown chief executive Graham Budd said the Mood of the Nation research had been undertaken for ‘‘some years now’’ and local sentiment towards international visitors in Queenstown was something the organisation had been monitoring over that period.
‘‘Queenstown’s largest economic driver is tourism and with the large proportion of visitors to locals here it is understandable that our local community can feel the impacts of pressure more keenly than other regions.’’
Destination Queenstown introduced community sentiment towards tourism as a theme in its most recent strategic threeyear plan.
‘‘We have seen a number of initiatives either implemented or being planned by our local council to help address some of Queenstown’s infrastructure challenges.
‘‘These include roading enhancements, the recently introduced $2 Orbus service and the downtown masterplan as part of the current longterm plan process.’’