Don’t tell foreigners to take a hike

PETER CLOUGH OPINION: The Government’s recent announcement that it would double Great Walks fees to foreigners gives effect to an idea floated before the last election, by the National Party. It seemed like a hastily considered proposal at the time, rushed out to be seen to be doing something about a topical concern – and eight months later, it still does.

The premise behind surcharging foreigners is that conservation lands and other tourism facilities are under pressure from visitor growth, that overseas visitors are driving that growth, and that foreigners should pay more than locals because they do not pay taxes that support the infrastructure. All these propositions are unfounded.

Tourists are people spending time away from home, and New Zealanders exploring their own country form a larger share of tourists than foreigners.

Foreigners may predominate on Great Walks, national parks and other hotspots, but overall there is little hard data on who uses what parts of our great outdoors.

Foreigners pay GST like New Zealanders, which the government adds to other tax revenues to fund general public expenditures. Social security and welfare account for 25 per cent, health for 16 per cent, and education for 13 per cent, so more than half of foreign tourists’ GST supports services they would not use.

The Tourism Satellite Account shows that, in the year to June 2017, foreign tourists contributed $1.5 billion, 8 per cent of the total GST collected.

DOC’s entire annual budget is about 0.3 per cent of total government spending, and has conspicuously failed to rise in step with recent growth in tourism activity. It is now a bit less than the sum foreign tourists’ GST contributes to social security expenditure. Foreign tourists are clearly contributing a surplus to provide for growing tourism infrastructure, if it weren’t being siphoned off for other purposes.

The numbers of New Zealanders visiting the conservation estate, or engaging with voluntary conservation and pest control schemes, not to mention the drawcard of landscape for tourism and overseas film-makers, indicate conservation is important for the economy and people’s wellbeing. It is a source of natural capital that should be maintained on a more sustainable basis than it has been.

That needs no new taxes, just new awareness of its value and how it can be degraded by underproviding for maintenance and growth.

There is merit in raising more revenue from use charges, as this collects money from places where the demand is strongest and gives guidance to where more spending is needed. It is most logical to charge more during peak periods, so that those who put most stress on existing facilities and drive the need for capacity upgrades pay more towards them.

DOC currently charges less for Great Walks off-season, because it removes certain facilities like fuel in huts, and avalanche-prone bridges. That differential does nothing to provide for future growth.

DOC currently does not charge visitors for access to land, only for use of a limited range of facilities (accommodation yes, car parks no). It manages broad tracts with long porous borders and many access points, where it is prohibitively costly to charge for entry and exclude nonpayers.

However, if charging for access is not feasible, tax revenues from the community that benefits can cover the shortfall. That community includes foreign visitors, who provide ample revenue to provide such support for both DOC and local authorities’ tourist infrastructure.

Doubling hut fees is unnecessary, and raises expectation and resentment at unfair treatment between hut users receiving essentially the same services.

This will only add to the complaints on the internet that New Zealand is expensive and poor value for money.

Great Walks have a booking system that caps the numbers using the huts, so higher fees may not see fewer foreigners on the tracks; rather, bunks will be secured by people willing to pay more. Foreigners who aren’t will still come to New Zealand, but divert to other tracks less prepared for more tourists, including those with an honesty box where they pay even less.

If the Routeburn is too expensive, they’re more likely to hit the Greenstone-Caples tracks a day’s walk from the Routeburn than the lightly used Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk.

Reputation in tourism is hard-won but easily lost. We used to like foreigners, welcome them to New Zealand.