Priced out of parks?
Tourism operators in Abel Tasman disagree over whether Great Walks price rises are likely to deter overseas visitors.
Doubling the price international visitors have to pay for Great Walk huts could taint New Zealand’s image overseas, some Nelson tourism operators fear.
Some operators in Abel Tasman National Park are also concerned it will put them under more pressure during the peak season, because more visitors will want to take day trips instead of staying overnight.
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage on Saturday announced that the cost of staying at a hut in the Abel Tasman for overseas visitors, including children, will rise to $75 a night from $38 as part of a seven-month trial starting in October. The price for them to stay at a Department of Conservation (DOC) campsite rises from $15 to $30.
Prices will also double for overseas visitors to $140 per night on the Milford track and $130 per night on the Kepler and Routeburn.
The new fees are intended to help cover the $3.8 million shortfall in maintaining the Great Walks and their facilities.
Sage said international visitors made up around 60 per cent of those walking and using the Great Walks.
The price rises are not expected to significantly reduce
‘‘DOC have to find ways of increasing their revenue streams, and user pays is one that makes sense.’’
Darryl Wilson, Wilsons Abel Tasman
visitor numbers, but may encourage overseas tourists to use lessvisited Great Walks.
The Abel Tasman is the most frequented of New Zealand’s nine Great Walks, with 300,000 visitors annually. Visitor numbers have increased by 10 per cent over the last three years.
However, having separate prices for locals and overseas visitors sends the wrong message, according to one of the park’s main water taxi service providers, Abel Tasman Aquataxi.
‘‘I think people are going to feel like they’re being taken advantage of,’’ owner and commercial director Brendan Alborn said.
‘‘As a visitor to places like Thailand and China over a number of years, I’ve always been quite disgruntled when there’s been a locals and a foreigner, so to speak, price difference. It can leave a bad taste in the mouth.’’
Hiking prices by 100 per cent didn’t make commercial sense, he said, and would do little to take pressure off visitor numbers in January and February.
‘‘I don’t think [it] is really going to do anything in terms of spreading the load to other national parks or helping spread out our shoulder seasons.’’
The price should be put up for everybody by a lesser amount, he said.
But Darryl Wilson of Wilsons Abel Tasman doesn’t agree.
‘‘I’ve personally visited a few national parks and attractions and even toilets in the last few weeks while I’ve been travelling overseas, and you just pay [the charge], because you’ve come that far and you’re not going to quibble over 10, 20, 30 dollars,’’ he said.
‘‘We’re probably as a nation subsidising holidays for people who would be prepared to pay more if they felt they were giving back to the vitality and nature of the experience they were seeking.
‘‘We’ve probably been the most benevolent country in the world, really, the way we’ve let everyone come through and enjoy our places with minimal charging.
‘‘DOC have to find ways of increasing their revenue streams, and user pays is one that makes sense.’’
However, Andrew McFarland of Kahu Kayaks expects to face more disgruntled customers over the move. He is co-director of the company, which rents kayaks to people who stay in DOC huts and campsites.
‘‘The tourists have found the huts quite expensive to start off with . . . tourists don’t understand the cost of what it is for DOC to run it.’’
McFarland said he expected more people to do day trips into the park, putting more pressure on ferry operators, who are already at capacity in peak season.
Spending $150 a night at a hut for two people might be enough to put some people off coming, Wally Bruce from Abel Tasman Guides said. ‘‘That’s a motel anywhere, and you get a bit more services at a motel.’’